Trophic effect of glicentin on intestinal mucosa during administration of elemental diet in rats

This experimental study was designed to elucidate whether glicentin 1-69 which has been newly synthesized has the trophic effect on the intestinal mucosa or not. Fourteen male SD rats weighing about 150g were used and divided into two groups : 8 rats in control group (C-group), and 6 rats in glicentin group (G-group). For seven days, all rats were fed by elemental diet solution (1 kcal/ml, Elental®, Morishita, Japan) without giving normal chows or ordinary drinking water to produce the mucosal atrophy of small intestine. During this period, these rats received 0.5 mL subcutaneous injections of either saline (C-group) or glicentin (10 μg/body: G-group) every 12 hours. All injections were mixed with 0.5 ml of 16% hydrolyzed gelatin. On the eighth day, all rats were sacrificed and measured body weight, weight of scraped mucosa and villous height of jejunum and ileum and plasma total-GLI levels. Body weight of G-group did not differ significantly from C-group. Jejunal mucosal weight was significantly greater than C-group. Ileal mucosal weight of C-group was similar to G-group. The villous heights in the proximal and middle intestine of G-group were significantly higher than C-group, while there was no significant differences between G-and C-group in distal intestine. The plasma total-GLI levels of G-group were about two times higher than C-group. These results suggest that glicentin is trophic for proximal intestinal mucosa.