Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
Four lambs (mean 27 kg liveweight) offered 900 g/day lucerne chaff were prepared with catheters in the portal vein (PV), cranial mesenteric vein (CMV), femoral artery (FA) and abomasum. L-[2,6-3H]phenylalanine (Phe) and 14C-(Phe)casein were infused into the abomasum in separate experiments. Concurrent samples of blood from the PV, CMV and FA were prepared as four fractions: plasma, deproteinized whole blood, free Phe in deproteinized whole blood, and whole blood. Ratios of net label uptakes in different blood fractions indicated that red blood cells and blood proteins were unlikely to contribute to net Phe uptake into the PV or CMV. Small peptides may have contributed up to 20% to total appearance of Phe in the PV and CMV. However, net uptake of peptides from the lumen was probably zero. It was concluded that the Phe uptake and, by implication, total amino acid uptake from the lumen of the small intestine into the PV and CMV were as free amino acids.