Abstract
The effect of hydrocortisone and sucrose on the development of chick intestinal disaccharidases was studied using the organ culture system. When intestines of 15- and 17-day-old embryos were cultured in the presence of hydrocortisone, there was significant enhancement of disaccharidases activity compared with the control. However, there was no effect in the 20-day embryonic intestines. On the other hand, the disaccharidase activity of cultured intestines from 20-day-old chick embryos were significantly stimulated by the addition of sucrose. The ob-served increase in disaccharidase activity induced by the administration of hydrocortisone in 17-day-old embryos in vitro was sensitive to actinomy-cin D and cycloheximide. The activity induced by the administration of sucrose in 20-day-old embryos in vitro was sensitive to cycloheximide but insensitive to actinomycin D.
