Fat Absorption in Absence of Bile and Pancreatic Juice

Abstract

Expts. were conducted to determine the mechanism by which normal dogs absorb various fats and fatty acids and to evaluate the importance of the external secretion of the liver and pancreas in this activity. The endogenous-lipid excretion was approx. 39.4, 142 and 125 mg./kg./day for normal, biliary-fistula and pancreatic -duct-ligated dogs respectively. Normal dogs absorbed trigly-cerides and fatty acids better than dogs deprived of bile or pancreatic juice. However, a considerable amt. (70%) of neutral fat, as corn oil, and of fatty acid (55 to 75%), as corn-oil-fatty acids and oleic acid, is absorbed in the absence of bile or pancreatic juice, which shows that neither bile nor pancreatic juice is indispensable for the absorption of any of the fats and fatty acids studied. A low-melting-point fat consisting mainly of un-saturated fatty acids, as corn oil, is better absorbed than a fat of high melting point consisting of saturated fatty acids, as tallow fat, in pancreatic-duct-ligated dogs and to a less extent in biliary-fistula dogs. Normal animals on a fat-free diet had approx. twice the percentage of endogenous fecal fat present as soap, as did the dogs deprived of pancreatic juice and bile. The same may be said for biliary-fistula dogs fed corn oil when compared with normal corn-oil-fed animals. Corn-oil-fatty-acid feeding slightly increases the percentage of soap in normal animals and greatly in biliary-fistula animals, over the values seen in the fat-free and corn-oil diets.