Ascending enteric reflex: multiple neurotransmitter systems and interactions

1989 ◽  
Vol 256 (3) ◽  
pp. G540-G545 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Substance P ◽  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Circular Muscle ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Neurotransmitter Systems ◽  
Cholinergic Interneurons

Isolated segments of the guinea pig small intestine were used to examine the transmitter circuitry of the neural pathways subserving the ascending enteric reflex (AER) contraction of the circular muscle. Inflation of an intraluminal balloon provided the distension stimulus for the AER. The ascending contraction was reduced to 5% of its original amplitude by atropine and to 10% by hexamethonium, which indicates that cholinergic interneurons and cholinergic motor neurons constitute the main AER pathway. However, in the continued presence of atropine or hexamethonium for 60 min, the AER recovered to approximately 30% of its original amplitude. The atropine-resistant AER was blocked by hexamethonium and the tachykinin antagonist spantide [( D-Arg1,D-Trp7,9, Leu11]-substance P) suggesting that it involved cholinergic interneurons and tachykinin-utilizing motor neurons. The hexamethonium-resistant AER was abolished by atropine but left unaffected by spantide, suggesting the participation of as yet unidentified interneurons and cholinergic motor neurons. These findings demonstrate that the AER is mediated by multiple neural pathways with different transmitters and that adaptive interactions between these pathways take place after blockade of one of its neurotransmitters systems.

Mechanisms underlying nutrient-induced segmentation in isolated guinea pig small intestine

2007 ◽  
Vol 292 (4) ◽  
pp. G1162-G1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Gwynne ◽  
J. C. Bornstein
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Slow Wave ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Circular Muscle ◽  
Decanoic Acid ◽  
Slow Waves ◽  
Longitudinal Position

Mechanisms underlying nutrient-induced segmentation within the gut are not well understood. We have shown that decanoic acid and some amino acids induce neurally dependent segmentation in guinea pig small intestine in vitro. This study examined the neural mechanisms underlying segmentation in the circular muscle and whether the timing of segmentation contractions also depends on slow waves. Decanoic acid (1 mM) was infused into the lumen of guinea pig duodenum and jejunum. Video imaging was used to monitor intestinal diameter as a function of both longitudinal position and time. Circular muscle electrical activity was recorded by using suction electrodes. Recordings from sites of segmenting contractions showed they are always associated with excitatory junction potentials leading to action potentials. Recordings from sites oral and anal to segmenting contractions revealed inhibitory junction potentials that were time locked to those contractions. Slow waves were never observed underlying segmenting contractions. In paralyzed preparations, intracellular recording revealed that slow-wave frequency was highly consistent at 19.5 (SD 1.4) cycles per minute (c/min) in duodenum and 16.6 (SD 1.1) c/min in jejunum. By contrast, the frequencies of segmenting contractions varied widely (duodenum: 3.6–28.8 c/min, median 10.8 c/min; jejunum: 3.0–27.0 c/min, median 7.8 c/min) and sometimes exceeded slow-wave frequencies for that region. Thus nutrient-induced segmentation contractions in guinea pig small intestine do not depend on slow-wave activity. Rather they result from a neural circuit producing rhythmic localized activity in excitatory motor neurons, while simultaneously activating surrounding inhibitory motor neurons.

Electrical activity of longitudinal and circular muscle during peristalsis

1983 ◽  
Vol 244 (1) ◽  
pp. G83-G88 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Yokoyama ◽  
R. A. North
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Substance P ◽  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Longitudinal Muscle ◽  
Circular Muscle ◽  
Intraluminal Pressure ◽  
Longitudinal Muscles ◽  
Spike Bursts

Action potentials were recorded simultaneously from the longitudinal and circular muscle layers of the guinea pig isolated small intestine. Both the graded reflex of the longitudinal muscle and the peristaltic reflex proper could be evoked by raising the intraluminal pressure. At low intraluminal pressures, intervals between spike bursts of the circular muscle were longer than those of the longitudinal muscle. The higher the intraluminal pressure, the shorter became the intervals between spike bursts in the circular muscle, until both muscle layers showed synchronous discharge of action potentials. Tetrodotoxin (100 nM) abolished the excitation of both circular and longitudinal muscles produced by raising intraluminal pressure. Hexamethonium (280 microM) abolished excitation of the circular muscle but not that of the longitudinal muscle. Atropine (100 nM) reduced the excitatory effects of raising pressure on both muscle layers but did not abolish them. The atropine-resistant excitation of the circular, but not the longitudinal, muscle was reversibly blocked by exposure to substance P (100–500 nM). Chymotrypsin (200 micrograms/ml) reversibly abolished the atropine-resistant excitation of the circular muscle. It was concluded that during peristalsis both longitudinal and circular muscle layers are activated synchronously; muscle activation during peristalsis is not entirely cholinergic but may involve in addition a substance P-like peptide.

Projections of substance P-containing neurons within the guinea-pig small intestine

Neuroscience ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Costa ◽  
J.B. Furness ◽  
I.J. Llewellyn-Smith ◽  
A.C. Cuello
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Substance P ◽  
Guinea Pig
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