Figure 2
From: Biochemical and physiological bases for utilization of dietary amino acids by young Pigs
Digestion of dietary protein in the gastrointestinal tract of young pigs. pH values in the gastric (stomach) juice of neonatal pigs and postweaning growing pigs are 3 to 5 and 2 to 3, respectively. pH values in the lumen of the small intestine of young pigs are 6 to 7. All diet-derived AA undergo various degrees of catabolism by luminal bacteria and some of them are oxidized by enterocytes. AA = amino acids; GSH = glutathione; NEAA = nutritionally nonessential AA; NM = nitrogenous metabolites; NT = nucleotides; PepT1 = H+ gradient-driven peptide transporter 1.