Pharmacology of Intestinal Permeation II

The intestine, particularly the small bowel, represents a large surface (in the adult 2 human approximately 200 m ) through which the body is exposed to its environ­ ment. A vigorous substrate exchange takes place across this large surface: nutrients and xenobiotics are absorbed from the lumen into the bloodstream or the lymph, and simultaneously, the same types of substrate pass back into the lumen. The luminal surface of the intestine is lined with a "leaky" epithelium, thus the passage of th