scholarly journals The myogenic component in distention-induced peristalsis in the guinea pig small intestine

2001 ◽  
Vol 280 (3) ◽  
pp. G491-G500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Donnelly ◽  
Timothy D. Jackson ◽  
Krista Ambrous ◽  
Jing Ye ◽  
Adeel Safdar ◽  
...  

In an in vitro model for distention-induced peristalsis in the guinea pig small intestine, the electrical activity, intraluminal pressure, and outflow of contents were studied simultaneously to search for evidence of myogenic control activity. Intraluminal distention induced periods of nifedipine-sensitive slow wave activity with superimposed action potentials, alternating with periods of quiescence. Slow waves and associated high intraluminal pressure transients propagated aborally, causing outflow of content. In the proximal small intestine, a frequency gradient of distention-induced slow waves was observed, with a frequency of 19 cycles/min in the first 1 cm and 11 cycles/min 10 cm distally. Intracellular recording revealed that the guinea pig small intestinal musculature, in response to carbachol, generated slow waves with superimposed action potentials, both sensitive to nifedipine. These slow waves also exhibited a frequency gradient. In addition, distention and cholinergic stimulation induced high-frequency membrane potential oscillations (∼55 cycles/min) that were not associated with distention-induced peristalsis. Continuous distention produced excitation of the musculature, in part neurally mediated, that resulted in periodic occurrence of bursts of distally propagating nifedipine-sensitive slow waves with superimposed action potentials associated with propagating intraluminal pressure waves that caused pulsatile outflow of content at the slow wave frequency.

2007 ◽  
Vol 292 (4) ◽  
pp. G1162-G1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Gwynne ◽  
J. C. Bornstein

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.


1999 ◽  
Vol 77 (8) ◽  
pp. 598-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Espinosa-Luna ◽  
Stephen M Collins ◽  
Luis M Montaño ◽  
Carlos Barajas-López

Intracellular recordings were obtained to investigate whether slow wave and spike type action potentials are present in cell cultures of the muscularis externa from the guinea pig small intestine. The muscularis externa of the small intestine was dissociated by using specific purified enzymes and gentle mechanical dissociation. Cells were plated on cover slips and maintained in culture for up to 4 weeks. Dissociated cells obtained in this way reorganized themselves in a few days to form small cell clumps showing spontaneous movements. Intracellular recordings of these clumps displayed both spike and slow wave type action potentials. Spikes were observed on top of some slow waves and were abolished by the addition of nifedipine or the removal of extracellular calcium. Slow waves, however, were nifedipine insensitive and temperature sensitive, and were abolished by octanol (a gap junction blocker) and forskolin (an adenyl cyclase activator). Slow waves were never observed in small clumps (<50 µm), suggesting that a critical mass of cells might be required for their generation. These observations demonstrated for the first time the presence of nifedipine-insensitive slow waves in cell cultures of the muscularis externa from the guinea pig small intestine. Cell cultures allow rigorous control of the immediate environment for the cells and this should facilitate future studies on the molecular and cellular mechanisms responsible for the slow waves in the gastrointestinal tract.Key words: smooth muscle, slow waves, spiking activity, gastrointestinal tract, gut, small intestine, electrophysiology, pacemaker activity, guinea pig.


1975 ◽  
Vol 229 (2) ◽  
pp. 484-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
AK Mukhopadhyay ◽  
LR Johnson ◽  
EM Copeland ◽  
NW Weisbrodt

The effect of intravenously administered secretin (0.5, 2.0, 6.0 U/kg-h) and intraduodenal acidification (13.2 meq/h HCl) on the electrical activity of the small bowel of three conscious dogs with gastric and duodenal cannulas was observed. Electrical activity was recorded in fasted as well as fed conditions through silver wire electrodes implanted along the entire length of the small bowel. Intravenous infusion of secretin in all dosages and in all dogs delayed the onset of the interdigestive myoelectric complex and reduced the total percentage of slow waves with superimposed spike potentials. Intraduodenal acidification also inhibited the interdigestive myoelectric complex, which developed incompletely with fewer action potentials on slow waves. Secretin did not produce any alteration in the fed pattern of activity, slow-wave frequency, or the caudal migration of the interdigestive myoelectric complex. The present study indicates that the nuerohumoral mechanisms responsible for initiation of the interdigestive myoelectric complex may be different from those responsible for its caudal migration.


1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (9) ◽  
pp. 1161-1165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Greenwood ◽  
Jan D. Huizinga ◽  
Edwin Chow ◽  
Wylie J. Dodds

The relationship between transmural potential difference (PD) and smooth muscle electrical and mechanical activity was investigated in the rabbit ileum in vitro. Transmural PD was monitored using agar salt bridge electrodes connected via calomel half cells to an electrometer. Force displacement transducers recorded predominantly longitudinal smooth muscle activity. Concurrently, predominantly circular muscle activity was recorded at three sites using intraluminal pressure probes. At the same sites, suction electrodes monitored electrical activity of the smooth muscle. In all experiments, fluctuations in transmural PD were temporally linked to smooth muscle mechanical and electrical activity. The frequency of PD oscillations, electrical slow waves, and cyclic pressure changes were identical within each segment. Adrenaline abolished smooth muscle electrical spiking, all mechanical activity, and transmural fluctuations in PD. However, the slow waves were not abolished, though their frequency was increased. Phentolamine but not propranolol reversed the effects of adrenaline, thus slow wave frequency is influenced by α-adrenergic stimulation in the rabbit ileum. In conclusion, oscillations in transmural PD are unrelated to the ionic processes associated with the slow wave. However, they are in some way linked to smooth muscle contractile activity, possibly via an intrinsic neural mechanism as observed in the guinea pig.


1988 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 363 ◽  
Author(s):  
KC Richardson ◽  
RS Wyburn

Electromyographic activity recorded by chronically implanted bipolar electrodes showed the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) and the quokka (Setonix brachyurus) to have slow wave activity over the entire stomach and small intestine. Slow wave mean frequency (min-') were: 5.5 and 5.3 for the forestomach; 5.4 and 5.0 for the pylorus; 26 and 17.8 for the duodenum; and 25 and 17.5 for the ileum in the tammar and quokka, respectively. There was virtually no frequency gradient of the slow wave along the length of the small intestine in both macropods, which is extremely unusual. Action potentials were recorded from the quokka stomach but not from the tammar stomach. Action potentials were recorded from the small intestine of both species. The pattern of action potential activity was similar in both species. There were periods of up to 30 minutes during which the intestine was quiescent (q) with no action potential activity. This was followed by extended periods when bursts of action potentials occurred irregularly to be followed by periods of about 5 minutes when action potentials were associated with every slow wave.


1960 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 777-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Daniel ◽  
B. T. Wachter ◽  
A. J. Honour ◽  
A. Bogoch

Electrical activity of the small intestine of man and of dogs has been studied using monopolar recording techniques and spread of electrical activity in the small intestine of the dog using a bipolar recording technique. Motility was studied simultaneously. Electrical activity consisted of slow waves and action potentials which occurred when contractions were present. Action potentials were not conducted but slow waves sometimes spread aborally for short distances. Particular attention was paid to the relation of slow waves to action potentials and to motility. No consistent alteration in the frequency or configuration of slow waves was found associated with the occurrence of action potentials and motility, although serotonin or epinephrine altered slow wave frequency slightly. Slow waves usually were increased in amplitude during periods when motility and action potentials were occurring (during eating or balloon propulsion; after the administration of serotonin, neostigmine, physostigmine, or morphine). Slow wave amplitudes usually were diminished when motility was inhibited (by balloon distention; after administration of epinephrine, etc.). Action potentials tended to occur in phase with the slow waves, when the muscle electrode was positive relative to the indifferent electrode, but this was not always so during nonpropulsive contractions. There was also a correlation between the occurrence of distal spread of slow waves over the duodenum and upper jejunum and the ability of the intestine in this region to respond to balloon distention by propulsion.In the dog, body temperature consistently affected slow waves. A decrease of 10 °C diminished their frequencies to less than one-half and diminished their amplitude. Slow waves occurred at similar frequencies and with regular conduction after large doses of nicotine or atropine. Dibenzyline, dichloroisopropyl-norepinephrine, and vagotomy did not markedly alter slow wave frequencies. These findings and those in our studies with microelectrodes indicate that the slow waves are myogenic in origin, and represent electrical currents in the extracellular fluid initiated by periodic depolarizations of muscle cells of the small intestine.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 1502-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Malysz ◽  
David Richardsons ◽  
Laura Farraway ◽  
Jan D. Huizinga ◽  
Marie-Odile Christen

Intrinsic electrical activities in various isolated segments of the mouse small intestine were recorded (i) to characterize action potential generation and (ii) to obtain a profile on the ion channels involved in initiating the slow wave type action potentials (slow waves). Gradients in slow wave frequency, resting membrane potential, and occurrence of spiking activity were found, with the proximal intestine exhibiting the highest frequency, the most hyperpolarized cell membrane, and the greatest occurrence of spikes. The slow waves were only partially sensitive to L-type calcium channel blockers. Nifedipine, verapamil, and pinaverium bromide abolished spikes that occurred on the plateau phase of the slow waves in all tissues. The activity that remained in the presence of L-type calcium channel blockers, the upstroke potential, retained a similar amplitude to the original slow wave and was of identical frequency. The upstroke potential was not sensitive to a reduction in extracellular chloride or to the sodium channel blockers tetrodotoxin and mexiletine. Abolishment of the Na+ gradient by removal of 120 mM extracellular Na+ reduced the upstroke potential frequency by 13–18% and its amplitude by 50–70% in the ileum. The amplitude was similarly reduced by Ni2+ (up to 5 mM), and by flufenamic acid (100 μM), a nonspecific cation and chloride channel blocker. Gadolinium, a nonspecific blocker of cation and stretch-activated channels, had no effect. Throughout these pharmacological manipulations, a robust oscillation remained at 5–10 mV. This oscillation likely reflects pacemaker activity. It was rapidly abolished by removal of extracellular calcium but not affected by L-type calcium channel blockers. In summary, the mouse small intestine has been established as a model for research into slow wave generation and electrical pacemaker activity. The upstroke part of the slow wave has two components, the pacemaker component involves a non-L-type calcium channel.Key words: slow wave, pacemaker, calcium channel, pinaverium, smooth muscle.


1976 ◽  
Vol 231 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
PC Specht

This study was designed to examine the propagation and propagation failure of the slow wave. Spontaneous slow waves and action potentials were recorded from the longitudinal muscle layer of small strips of cat jejunum. Slow waves could be stimulated electrically at intervals shorter than the spontaneous interval, and the velocity of propagation of these slow waves was slower than the spontaneous slow waves. The velocity of propagation was approximately proportional to the time between slow waves. At intervals about one-half the normal spontaneous interval the propagation became slow and unstable, which would result in the periodic failure of a single slow wave. This type of failure may underlie the formation of the slow-wave frequency gradient observed in the intact intestine. The wave shape of the external recording of the slow wave, together with the measurement of electrotonic current spread in strips of isolated muscle, suggest that the slow wave propagates by local circuit currents in an electrically excitable cablelike tissue.


1960 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 777-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Daniel ◽  
B. T. Wachter ◽  
A. J. Honour ◽  
A. Bogoch

Electrical activity of the small intestine of man and of dogs has been studied using monopolar recording techniques and spread of electrical activity in the small intestine of the dog using a bipolar recording technique. Motility was studied simultaneously. Electrical activity consisted of slow waves and action potentials which occurred when contractions were present. Action potentials were not conducted but slow waves sometimes spread aborally for short distances. Particular attention was paid to the relation of slow waves to action potentials and to motility. No consistent alteration in the frequency or configuration of slow waves was found associated with the occurrence of action potentials and motility, although serotonin or epinephrine altered slow wave frequency slightly. Slow waves usually were increased in amplitude during periods when motility and action potentials were occurring (during eating or balloon propulsion; after the administration of serotonin, neostigmine, physostigmine, or morphine). Slow wave amplitudes usually were diminished when motility was inhibited (by balloon distention; after administration of epinephrine, etc.). Action potentials tended to occur in phase with the slow waves, when the muscle electrode was positive relative to the indifferent electrode, but this was not always so during nonpropulsive contractions. There was also a correlation between the occurrence of distal spread of slow waves over the duodenum and upper jejunum and the ability of the intestine in this region to respond to balloon distention by propulsion.In the dog, body temperature consistently affected slow waves. A decrease of 10 °C diminished their frequencies to less than one-half and diminished their amplitude. Slow waves occurred at similar frequencies and with regular conduction after large doses of nicotine or atropine. Dibenzyline, dichloroisopropyl-norepinephrine, and vagotomy did not markedly alter slow wave frequencies. These findings and those in our studies with microelectrodes indicate that the slow waves are myogenic in origin, and represent electrical currents in the extracellular fluid initiated by periodic depolarizations of muscle cells of the small intestine.


1983 ◽  
Vol 244 (1) ◽  
pp. G83-G88 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Yokoyama ◽  
R. A. North

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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document