Substrate and parasubstrate regulation of physiological processes at various levels of the organization of living systems as illustrated by examples of the regulation of appetite, of the specific dynamic action of food and of the inhibition of processes of absorption]

It was demonstrated that in the organism of higher animals the adaptation regulation of food uptake and nutrient absorption and transport comprises, in addition to the classic mechanisms of substrate regulation, specialized non-substrate and parasubstrate mechanisms which control the uptake of food and other substrates at all three levels (organosystemic, organic and cellular). As to the organosystemic level, it was observed in duodenectomized rats that appetite inhibition is produced not only by a stimulation of the receptors and by an increase in the concentration of the food substrates and of the metabolites in the blood, but also by one of the intestinal appetite-inhibiting hormones, arenterin. As to the organic level, it was evidenced that the enzymatic and transport functions of the small intestine and the numerical composition of the enterocyte population in the different segments are determined by the substrate load on the respective areas of the small intestine as well as by the blood and chyme-mediated intersegmental reactions in the small intestine. As to the tissular and cellular levels, the possibility of a regulation of the enzymatic and transport systems of the microvilli by means of substrates contained in the mucous membrane of the small intestine and endogenous substances (permein and antipermein) was evinced.