Studies on the Site of Fat Absorption
Gut: first published as 10.1136/gut.2.2.168 on 1 June 1961. Downloaded from Gut, 1961, 2, 168 Studies on the site of fat absorption 2 Fat balances after resection of varying amounts of the small intestine in man C. C. BOOTH, D. ALLDIS, AND A. E. READ Fronm the Departments of Medicine and Chemical Pathology, Postgraduate Medical School ofLondon SYNOPSIS This paper demonstrates that in man, as in the rat, increasing amounts of fat reach more distal levels of the small intestine as the dietary load increases. Opinions have varied as to the site of fat absorption containing between 30 and 75 g. daily. The results in the small intestine of experimental animals of these balances indicated how much of the small (Bernard, 1856; Frazer, 1943; Kremen, Linner, and intestine is required to absorb moderate amounts Nelson, 1954; Benson, Chandler, Vansteenhuyse, of fat normally. Increasing fat diets were then given and Gagnon, 1956; Turner, 1958; Booth, Read, and to four patients, for if the site of fat absorption is Jones, 1961). It is now clear that the site where fat related to the dietary fat, it might be expected that is normally absorbed depends on the dietary load. increasing fat diets would cause increasing degrees When a small amount of fat is given to a rat, for of steatorrhoea in patients with intestinal resections. http://gut.bmj.com/ instance, absorption takes place almost entirely in the jejunum. If larger quantities are fed larger PATIENTS STUDIED amounts are absorbed in the jejunum, but at the same time an increasing proportion of the ingested Fat balances were carried out in seven patients who had undergone resection of varying amounts of the distal fat escapes absorption in the upper intestine and small intestine (Cases 1 to 7) and two patients who had passes on into the ileum where absorption then also resections of the proximal intestine (Cases 8 and 9).
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