Calcium as a factor in structuring the enteral flora

Abstract

Experiments were carried out on animals of different species to study the parameters of calcium metabolism at the level of the small and large intestines. In monogastric and polygastric animals, the fractional composition of chyme was studied by centrifugation and the concentration of calcium in its exogenous and endogenous components was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. An analysis of native chyme from different parts of the rabbit intestine was carried out by X-ray structural analysis using the small-angle diffraction method. It was found that as the chyme and its endogenous fraction move along the intestine, the calcium content increases with a predominant relative proportion of other mineral elements. Diffraction maxima exceeding the width of true crystals and characteristic of amorphous crystalline substances were obtained on X-ray patterns. The general biological phenomenon of calcium deposition in endogenous structures of chyme to form a nano-ordered framework of enteroplasm was inferred. The regularities of enteral calcium metabolism in animals of different species established during the experiments are of scientific importance for the study of the mechanisms of its homeostasis in the body and of practical value in the field of setting mineral nutritional standards, taking into account the significant calcium accumulation by endogenous components of the small and large intestines. The X-ray structural analysis of chyme complements the theoretical basis of the strip digestion concept and allows for a preliminary assessment of its physicochemical properties.