Calcium Transport across the Colon

Abstract

In 1969 Harrison and Harrison were the first who found Ca absorption in the rat colon in vitro. For a long time, however, it has been suggested that bulk of dietary Ca absorption occurs across the small intestine with little contribution from the large bowel. Perfusion studies confirmed that the rat colon is capable to absorb Ca at physiological luminal concentrations (Petith and Schedl 1976). Furthermore, there is clinical evidence that in patients suffering from malabsorption in the small intestine the preservative function of the colon plays an important role in maintaining a sufficient Ca absorption(Hylander et al. 1980). Therefore it seemed of interest to study Ca transport across different segments of the colon in order to compare Ca transport across the large bowel with the transport pattern of Ca across the small intestine.