The capacity for paracellular absorption in the insectivorous bat Tadarida brasiliensis

FASULO, S. V.; ZHANG, Z.; CHEDIACK, J. G.; CID, F. D.; KARASOV, W.; CAVIEDES-VIDAL E.

JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY B-BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

Lugar: HEIDELBERG; Año: 2012

0174-1578

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 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.