ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to gastric absorption of fatty acids in suckling animals and infants. Conclusive proof was established that medium and short chain fatty acids, particularly caprylic acid in nonruminants, and butyric acid in ruminants, when introduced in the stomach, were disappearing at a relatively high rate. At the relatively low pH of the gastric contents, long chain fatty acids are in the lipophilic undissociated form and, in the absence of bile salts of their critical micellar concentration, they remain solubilized in the oil phase. In the rat, the intestinal microvillus membrane has been reported to contain as much as 38% of total lipids in dry weight, with the following approximate composition: 20% of neutral lipids, 30% of phospholipids, and as much as 50% of glycolipids. The uptake of medium chain fatty acids by everted sacs of rat jejunum exhibits a linear relationship with the bulk phase concentration, thus demonstrating the absence of any saturation kinetics.
