Effects of Feeding a Diet Containing Lactose Upon ß-d-Galactosidase Activity and Organ Development in the Rat Digestive Tract

¹ From the Department of Home Economics, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbus, Ohio

Feeding a 25% lactose diet had no enhancing effect upon rat stomach or pancreas development or upon ß-d-galactosidase activity in stomach lining or pancreas. The lactose feeding significantly increased the cleaned small intestine fresh weight and total nitrogen. This increase in total nitrogen appeared to be due mainly to growth of the mucous epithelium, since the nitrogen content was significantly increased in the epithelium but not in the rest of the small intestine. The total ß-d-galactosidase activity of the small intestine mucous epithelium was significantly increased by the lactose feeding, but the specific activity (units of enzyme per milligram of tissue nitrogen) was not significantly altered.