Determination of Intestinal Enzyme Activities During Infancy Period

Intestinal enzyme activities are indirect indicators that reflect the existence and metabolic activity of bacteria living in the intestinal flora. The purpose of the study was to measure fecal beta (β)-glucuronidase, β-glucosidase and urease enzyme activities and to determine the factors that affect levels in 6 week old and 8 month old babies.\udMaterials and Methods: The study comprised 100 healthy infants at 6 weeks of age. Feces samples were collected from all infants. However, 17 of the feces samples were not included due to the lack of particles in the feces. The same samples were also taken from 35 infants at 8 months of age. Twenty-five of the infants had given feces samples at both 6 weeks and 8 months of age. Urease, β-glucuronidase and β-glucosidase enzyme activities (nmol/min-1/mg-protein-1) were measured.\udResults: In repeated measures, the levels of β-glucuronidase and urease declined over time and β-glucosidase levels increased. At 8 months of age, higher β-glucuronidase levels were obtained in premature infants. At 6 weeks of age, lower levels of urease were measured in babies who were started breastfeeding at the first hour of life and were bottle-fed. Exclusive breastfeeding had no influence on the intestinal enzyme activities.\udConclusions: In early infancy period when microflora is structured, intestinal enzyme activities are important that show indirectly functionality of the microflora. However, it is difficult to highlight what affects the levels of intestinal enzymes because activities vary according to the age