Development of Gastric and Pancreatic Enzyme Activities and Their Relationship with Some Gut Regulatory Peptides in Grazing Sheep

Forty-four Gansu Alpine Fine-wool lambs were used to study changes in the activities of three gastric and five pancreatic enzymes under grazing conditions between 0 and 56 days of age. The lambs were slaughtered on days 0, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 42 and 56, the abomasal contents, mucosa and pancreas were immediately removed and placed into liquid nitrogen and enzyme activities were determined. Gastric enzyme (chymosin, pepsin and pregastrc esterase) activities were relatively high at birth, especially chymosin, but decreased quickly between day 0 and 21. The activity of pepsin changed insignificantly with increasing age. There was no significant change in the pancreatic enzyme activities (trypsin, chymotrypsin, ${\alpha}$-amylase, lipase and lactase). The activity of trypsin was relatively higher than that of the other pancreatic enzymes, and lactase activity was low. These ontogenic patterns might be under the control of many gut regulatory peptides, the plasma concentrations of which changed simultaneously. Some gastric and pancreatic enzymes were correlated with plasma concentrations of these gut regulatory peptides.