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The capacity for paracellular absorption in the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis

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Abstract

Water-soluble nutrients are absorbed by the small intestine via transcellular and paracellular processes. The capacity for paracellular absorption seems greater in fliers than in nonfliers, although that conclusion rests mainly on a comparison of flying birds and nonflying mammals because only two frugivorous bat species have been studied. Furthermore, the bats studied so far were relatively large (>85 g, compared with most bat species which are <20 g) and were not insectivores (like about 70 % of bat species). We studied the small (11 g) insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis and tested the prediction that the capacity for paracellular absorption would be as high as in the other bat and avian species studied so far, well above that in terrestrial, nonflying mammals. Using standard pharmacokinetic technique, we measured the extent of absorption (fractional absorption = f) of inert carbohydrate probes: L-arabinose (MM = 150.13) absorbed exclusively by paracellular route and 3OMD-glucose (MM = 194) absorbed both paracellularly and transcellularly. As predicted, the capacity of paracellular absorption in this insectivorous bat was high (L-arabinose f = 1.03 ± 0.14) as in other frugivorous bats and small birds. Absorption of 3OMD-glucose was also complete (f = 1.09 ± 0.17), but >80 % was accounted for by paracellular absorption. We conclude that passive paracellular absorption of molecules of the size of amino acids and glucose is extensive in this bat and, generally in bats, significantly higher than that in nonflying mammals, although the exact extent can be somewhat lower or higher depending on molecule size, polarity and charge.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Antonio Brun and Guido Fernández Marinone for their help in capturing bats and during experiments. WHK and ECV were supported by United States National Science Foundation grant #IOS-1025886 and ECV by UNSL CyT 9502 and PICT2007-01320 and the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW-Madison.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Biología “Professor E. Caviedes Codelia”, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, 5700, San Luis, Argentina

    Verónica Fasulo, ZhiQiang Zhang, Juan G. Chediack, Fabricio D. Cid & Enrique Caviedes-Vidal

  2. Departamento de Psicobiología, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, 5700, San Luis, Argentina

    Verónica Fasulo

  3. Departamento de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, 5700, San Luis, Argentina

    Juan G. Chediack, Fabricio D. Cid & Enrique Caviedes-Vidal

  4. Laboratorio de Biología Integrativa, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, 5700, San Luis, Argentina

    ZhiQiang Zhang, Juan G. Chediack, Fabricio D. Cid & Enrique Caviedes-Vidal

  5. Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    William H. Karasov

  6. College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, People’s Republic of China

    ZhiQiang Zhang

Authors
  1. Verónica Fasulo
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  2. ZhiQiang Zhang
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  3. Juan G. Chediack
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  4. Fabricio D. Cid
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  5. William H. Karasov
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  6. Enrique Caviedes-Vidal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enrique Caviedes-Vidal.

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Communicated by H.V. Carey.

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Fasulo, V., Zhang, Z., Chediack, J.G. et al. The capacity for paracellular absorption in the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis . J Comp Physiol B 183, 289–296 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-012-0696-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-012-0696-1

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