Hans Henrikson Ussing, a Danish scientist, was best known for having invented the Ussing chamber. In the early 1950s Ussing was the first to describe the mechanism by which ions are actively transported across frog skin. When he invented the device that was accordingly named after his name－ “Ussing–chamber”, he could never have anticipated the broad range of applications that his system would be used for. The Ussing chamber provides a physiologically relevant system for measuring the transport of ions, nutrients, and drugs across various epithelial tissues.
Postgraduate students in Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture （ISA）analyze the application of the Ussing chamber technique in animal nutrition and physiology in order to help researchers better understand this valuable method for measuring the transport of electrolytes, organic nutrients, water, and drugs across the small intestine, placenta, and other epithelial tissues..
Researchers firstly outlines a review about the design, structure, principle, and operation of the Ussing chamber, its application in the field of gastrointestinal barrier function and nutrient transport research, as well as its advantages and limitations. And a research group use Ussing chamer technology to determine effects of diets without L-lysine on the absorption of L-lysine and other amino acids of jejunum and ileum epithelial tissue in SD rats. In the test researchers add L-lysine and mannitol solution into different chambers. The results have been found that lysine penetrat the jejunum or ileum epithelium from the diffusion pool to the receiving room has increased. Especially, the amount of cumulative L-lysine transported through the ileum mucosa in the absorptive direction was significantly higher than that from the jejunum. In addition, researchers apply for Ussing chamber to measure glucose and fructose transfer efficiency of the piglet intestinal mucosa and make a conclusion that deoxynivalenol has significantly inhibited glucose and fructose transfer efficiency.
This research is jointly supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB127301), Chinese Academy of Sciences and Knowledge Innovation Project (XBXJ-2011-016), Chinese Universities Scientific Funds (No.2012RC024).
The paper entitled “Use of the Ussing chamber technique to study nutrient transport by epithelial tissues” has been published in the June issue of Frontiers in Bioscience, details could be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23747882