Studies on the lipid composition of human small bowel mucosa.

Until recent times there have been no techniques enabling the gastrointestinal physiologist to in- vestigate in vivo the intracellular phase of fat ab- sorption in man. With a hydraulic biopsy tube (2), the sequence of morphological changes in the small bowel absorptive cell was described after giving fatty meals to normal subjects (3, 4). However, there has been no thorough study of the composition of the lipids of human small bowel mucosa in the fasting state or during ab- sorption. In the present study, multiple mucosal biopsies were obtained with a hydraulic biopsy tube (2) from the distal duodenum in man. Their lipid composition was determined by micro- analytical techniques. A larger group of nor- mal subjects and a smaller group of patients with idiopathic hyperlipemia were studied. The in- fluence of certain dietary manipulations on in- testinal absorptive cell lipids was also investigated.