MATERIALS AND METHODSStudy design. Newborn litters of Sprague Dawley rats were obtained from Sasco Industries (Omaha, NE). Mothers were allowed free access to food and water, and the pups were allowed to suckle freely. At 17 days of age, litters were separated from the mothers and randomly divided into two groups. Group I (acidotic) was offered pulverized standard food to eat and 1.5% NH 4 Cl to drink. The animals were allowed free access to water and food. Group 2 (control) was pair fed as a group with the first group and offered water to drink ad libitum. After 3 days, arterial blood gases were obtained, and jejunal glucose and phosphate transport were measured in vivo and in vitro.In vivo transport studies. In vivo transport was measured using a recirculating perfusion technique (II). Briefly, the proximal 20 cm of jejunum were cannulated with polyethylene inflow and outflow catheters and flushed with ice cold saline buffer and air. The intestinal segment was perfused at 0.1 ml/min with a solution consisting of 145 mM NaCl, 20 mM Hepes/Tris (pH 6.5), and 0.1 mM glucose labelled with 3H-glucose (specific activity 50 Cijmmol, New England Nuclear, Boston, MA), or 0.3 mM KH 2 P04 labeled with KHPP04 (specific activity 1 Cijmmol, New England Nuclear). After a 20-min equilibration period, duplicate 100-tLl aliquots were sampled every 10 min for 40 min. The rate of glucose or phosphate absorption was calculated by determining the rate of disappearance of the solute from the perfusate. Fluid shifts were assessed using 3H or 14C labeled inulin as a nonabsorable marker (specific activity 0.5 and 50 Cijmol, respectively, New England Nuclear) and absorption was corrected for fluid shifts. 3H, 14C, and 32P-labeled radioactivities were determined by double isotope counting and calculating techniques (12). Absorption results were expressed in terms of dry intestinal length since dry length correlates best with intestinal surface area (13).In vitro transport studies. In vitro transport was measured using jejunal brush border membrane vesicles (14). Briefly, animals were anesthetized with ether and 0.4 ml of blood was withdrawn from the abdominal aorta for arterial blood gas measurements. The entire jejunum was removed and washed with ice cold 0.9 N saline and everted over a glass rod. Brush border membrane vesicles were prepared by sequential precipitation with 0.01 M MgCb and differential centrifugation (15). The purity of the vesicle preparation for rats of varying ages has been previously demonstrated in our laboratory using morphologic criteria, enzymatic enrichment studies, and functional transport studies (15).Glucose and phosphate uptakes were measured by a rapid filtration technique (16) using Sartorius cellulose nitrate filters of 0.45 tLm pore size (Sartorius Filters Inc., Hayward, CA) that had been presoaked in stop solution containing 100 mM mannitol, 100 mM choline chloride, 20 mM hepes/tris, and 50 mM magnesium chloride (pH 7.4). Glucose stop solution also con-763ABSTRACf. To investigate the effects of metaboli...