Hunger Diarrhoea and the Enterocyte Chloride Ion Secretion Paradigm | Chapter 01 | Current Trends in Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 5
Enhanced secretion of fluid in starvation has been proposed to worsen any fluid secretion that is already occurring after exposure of the intestine to enterotoxins. The evidence for this is that historical accounts of imposed fasting in civil or military circumstances are associated with fatalities that arise from secretory diarrhoeal disease. In addition, there is also experimental work apparently showing that secretion is enhanced during short term starvation. In experimental animals exposed to fasting and bacterial enterotoxin, the short-circuit current increase on toxin exposure, assumed to represent fluid secretion, is always greater in the animal intestine exposed to E. coli heat stable STa enterotoxin. Attention is drawn to the fact that human volunteers in a laboratory setting do not develop diarrhoea on fasting. They do develop a reduction in circulating blood volume consistent with lower than usual blood pressure and hypovolaemia. More detailed examination of the well do...