The Effect of Bile on Vitamin A Absorption in the Rat ∗

Abstract

Summary

Two groups of 11 Sprague-Dawley rats were fed vitamin A^-14C in corn oil, both had thoracic duct fistulas, one group in addition had bile fistulas. There was a poor total recovery of vitamin from the animal tissue and gastrointestinal contents of both groups of animals and this was less in the bile fistula animals where less vitamin A was absorbed. This is most likely explained by the degradation of lipid soluble vitamin A into water soluble metabolites by bacteria in the large intestine. In the control animals more radioactivity was recovered from the intestinal lymph than the liver and other tissues, suggesting that most of the absorbed vitamin A was transported by the lymphatic route. In the absence of bile, however, when the absorption of vitamin A was grossly impaired, there was a tendency for more to be recovered from the liver than the lymph, suggesting that an alternative route of transport of the absorbed vitamin was used.