Studies on the Nutritional and Physiological Implications of Sugar Alcohols in Cecectomized Rats

Indigestible but fermentable materials are widely used in the world mainly as sugar substitute for their many functional effects in nutrition and disease prevention. The appropriate evaluation of the functional effects of the above materials is very important before their application for consumption by human beings. It is sure that a wide range study of the effects of above materials directly in humans is really impossible because a vast level of studies on human beings is not possible for many ethical reasons. Therefore, an appropriate experimental animal model is definitely needs to study the actual functional effects of the above fermentable materials in humans. Most of the indigestible but fermentable materials are poorly or not digested or are absorbed into the small intestine and finally entered into the distal part of the digestive tract for fermentation. In this regards, the physiological analogy of the large intestine of the experimental animal with human should be considered at first as it is act a major fermentation site in both cases. Rats are widely used as experimental animals in the world, but there is a major difference in the digestive physiology between these two species. Rats have a large voluminous cecum in the ileocolonic junction when no such distinct feature was found in case of human. In rats, cecum is act as a major fermentation site including proximal colon for indigestible materials where colon is the only fermentation site in human. The anatomy of the digestive tract of cecectomized rat is more analogous to human than an intact rat. Therefore cecectomized rat can be a possible model animal to study the functional effects of indigestible but fermentable materials for humans. Although fermentable materials has many functional effects for humans, over does or intake in large amounts may cause many gastrointestinal discomforts, e.g. bloating, flatulence, cramping, abdominal pain, and osmotic diarrhea. In spite of large scale gastrointestinal discomforts, no noble research has been investigated to identify the actual cause or to reduce the above fermentable material based discomforts or diarrhea. Identifying the actual cause and prevention of the possible risk of diarrhea caused by above materials is very important to increase their nutritional value and acceptability for humans.