Intestinal Transport of Two Dipeptides Containing the Same Two Neutral Amino Acids in Man

1. A double lumen perfusion technique has been used in man to study the absorption of the two neutral amino acids glycine and l-alanine from the two dipeptides, l-alanylglycine and glycyl-l-alanine and from an equivalent amino acid mixture. 2. Glycine was absorbed faster from the dipeptides than from the equivalent amino acid mixture, and the difference in absorption rates of glycine and alanine seen when the equimolar mixture of the amino acids was perfused, was abolished when either dipeptide was perfused. This suggests that dipeptides are taken up by the mucosal cell by a mechanism independent of the amino acid-transport system. 3. The presence of free amino acids in the lumen during perfusion of both dipeptides suggests that hydrolysis occurs at some stage in the uptake process. Intraluminal hydrolysis was insufficient to account for the concentration of the amino acids seen, and their presence is thought to be due to hydrolysis of the dipeptides at the brush border. 4. It is suggested that these results confirm that at least two modes of peptide absorption occur simultaneously, namely, direct peptide uptake, and peptide hydrolysis with subsequent absorption of the released amino acids by the amino acid transport system.