Changes in digestive enzyme activities of red porgy Pagrus pagrus during a fasting–refeeding experiment

An experiment was carried out in red porgy, Pagrus pagrus (Teleostei, Sparidae), to assess the effects of a 14-day fasting period, followed by refeeding to apparent satiation, on the contents of digestive enzymes (total proteases, and particularly pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, carboxypeptidases A and B; amylase and lipase). Two fish groups were considered: one (indicated as fasted/refed group) was fasted for 14 days and then refed during further 7 and 15 days, and the other was fed throughout the study and was taken as a control group. The measured enzymatic values showed that fasting resulted in a generalized, not significant decrease, of the activity of digestive enzymes. Refeeding caused a significant increase for most of the assayed enzymes: total proteases both in the middle and distal intestine, pepsin in the stomach, trypsin in the middle intestine, and amylase and lipase in the proximal intestine. Nevertheless, the detection in the fasted/refed fish of enzymatic values still lower than those measured in the control fish suggested that fish experiencing short-term fasting were partially impaired in their digestive capacity.