Release of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide anally of a local distension of the feline small intestine

Glutamine ameliorates mechanical obstruction-induced intestinal injury

BACKGROUND

Glutamine has been shown to be an important dietary component for the maintenance of gut integrity. Although considered a nonessential amino acid in normal circumstances, glutamine may become conditionally essential for the bowel during episodes of severe illness and malnutrition. In this study, we employed an animal model simulating mechanical intestinal obstruction to explore the beneficial effects of glutamine on the intestine in response to obstruction-induced injury.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Rats were on three feeding regimens-standard diet and water (control group), diet and water containing 2% glutamine (glutamine group), or diet and water containing 2% arginine (arginine group)-for 3 days prior to surgical preparation of intestinal obstruction. The bowel distension, fluid accumulation, and histological alterations in the intestinal mucosa were measured 40 h after ileal ligation.

RESULTS

After 3 days of drinking water intervention, the plasma glutamine levels in the glutamine group (677 +/- 12 microM) were higher than those in the control (451 +/- 27 microM) and arginine (379 +/- 25 microM) groups. The distension ratio measured 40 h after ileal ligation was significantly lower in the glutamine group (30.9 +/- 4.2%) than in the control and arginine groups (45.9 +/- 1.7 and 46.1 +/- 3.4%, respectively). Also, glutamine markedly decreased the fluid accumulation in the obstructed bowel segment (control group, 178.41 +/- 18.60 mg/cm; glutamine group, 104.97 +/- 13.17 mg/cm; arginine group, 141.4 +/- 12.85 mg/cm). Furthermore, the obstruction-induced mucosal injury was substantially improved in glutamine-fed rats.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that glutamine can significantly reduce the degree of those physiological derangements induced by mechanical intestinal obstruction.

Importance of vasoactive intestinal peptide and somatostatin for fluid losses in small-bowel obstruction

BACKGROUND

Previous observations have shown vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) to be an important secretagogue in the gut, whereas somatostatin has been reported to inhibit VIP release and fluid secretion.

METHODS

The possible role of VIP as mediator of the inflammation and fluid losses in obstructive ileus was investigated in vivo and in a chronic rat model with thread ligation of the jejunum. Extravasated Evans blue (Eb)-stained albumin was quantified by spectrophotometry. Net fluid secretion was measured by a gravimetric technique. VIP antiserum was used to inhibit the effects of endogenous VIP. A somatostatin analogue, octreotide, was used to inhibit the release of VIP.

RESULTS

Results showed a pronounced plasma Eb-albumin extravasation in the wall of the obstructed gut, which was significantly inhibited by VIP antiserum (p < 0.05) or octreotide (p < 0.01). Obstruction of the jejunum resulted in net fluid secretion that was significantly reduced by administration of octreotide (p < 0.01) or VIP antiserum (p < 0.05). Net fluid secretion in control animals remained constant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that VIP is an important mediator of the pathophysiology in mechanical intestinal obstruction and that somatostatin may be involved in the endogenous control of fluid losses.

Mechanical stimulation and capsaicin evoked vasodilation by parasympathetic reflex mechanisms in the pig nasal mucosa

A model was developed using pentobarbital anesthetized pigs to study bilateral blood flow changes in the nasal mucosa by flow-probes on both sphenopalatine arteries. Unilateral mechanical stimulation of the nasal mucosa for 10s as well as close intra-arterial capsaicin infusion induced bilateral vasodilation. The magnitude of the vasodilator responses were similar on both sides, although the capsaicin effect (maximal increase in arterial blood flow by about 100 ml/min) was larger than that of the mechanical stimulation. Pretreatment with atropine (0.5 mg x kg-1) had no effect on the vascular responses to capsaicin or mechanical stimulation. However, when the pigs were pretreated with the ganglionic nicotinic receptor blocking agent, chlorisondamine (3 mg x kg-1), the vasodilatory responses to mechanical stimulation were abolished and the responses to capsaicin infusion markedly reduced (90-95%). These data indicate that unilateral mechanical stimulation as well as capsaicin infusion evoke bilateral nasal vasodilation which is probably mediated via a central reflex arch with a parasympathetic non-cholinergic final step.

Release of immunoreactive somatostatin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), and galanin during propulsive complexes in isolated pig ileum

We studied the release of immunoreactive somatostatin, VIP, and galanin during net aboral propulsive complexes (NAP) in isolated, perfused, 80-cm segments of porcine ileum. Net aboral propulsive complexes were induced by controlled infusion of liquid (perfusion medium, 3.5 ml/min) into the proximal opening of the ileum segment. In response to liquid infusion, the ileum segments generated propulsive complexes rapidly propagating along the entire segment in the aboral direction, resulting in emptying of the luminal contents. The NAPs occurred with an average interval of 7 minutes. The concentrations of galanin, somatostatin, and VIP in the venous effluent, which in control experiments without luminal infusion did not change, increased significantly (by 63.6 +/- 23.7%, 43.8 +/- 31.8%, and 38.8 +/- 14.6%, respectively) during NAPs and emptying. Atropine (10(-6) mol/l) and hexamethonium (10(-5) mol/l) abolished both NAP generation and peptide responses. It is concluded that the enteric neuropeptides, somatostatin, VIP, and galanin, all of which have pronounced intestinal motor effects, may participate in the generation of net aboral propulsive complexes in the ileum of the pig, possibly mainly in descending relaxation.

Immunocytochemical analysis of potential neurotransmitters present in the myenteric plexus and muscular layers of the corpus of the guinea pig stomach

Recent electrophysiological studies of neurons of the myenteric plexus of the corpus of the guinea pig stomach have revealed that slow synaptic events are extremely rare. In contrast, they are commonly encountered in similar investigations of myenteric ganglia of the guinea pig small intestine. The current immunocytochemical analysis of the myenteric plexus and innervation of the muscularis externa of the corpus of the guinea pig stomach was undertaken in order to determine whether putative neurotransmitters capable of mediating slow synaptic events are present in gastric ganglia. A major difference between the small intestine and the stomach was found in the innervation of the musculature. Whereas the longitudinal muscle layer of the small intestine contains very few nerve fibers and is innervated mainly at its interface with the myenteric plexus, the longitudinal muscle of the corpus of the stomach contained as many varicose substance P (SP)-, vasocative intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-, and neuropeptide Y (NPY)-immunoreactive axons as the circular muscle layer. These putative neurotransmitters were also present in the ganglia of the myenteric plexus, where varicose SP-, VIP-, and NPY-immunoreactive fibers encircled nonimmunoreactive neurons. Varicose 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-immunoreactive terminal axons were essentially limited to the myenteric plexus and were found both in ganglia and in interganglionic connectives, where they were particularly numerous; 5-HT-immunoreactive neurons appeared to be more abundant in the stomach than in the small intestine. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)- and calcitonin-gene-related-peptide (CGRP)-immunoreactive axons were also more common in the myenteric plexus than in the musculature, but of these, only the TH-immunoreactive neurites tended, like those of the other putative transmitters, to encircle neurons in myenteric ganglia. Evidence was obtained that, as in the small intestine, at least some of the SP-, VIP-, NPY-, and 5-HT-immunoreactive fibers in the stomach are derived from intrinsic gastric myenteric neurons. In contrast, unlike the small intestine, gastric myenteric ganglia appeared to lack intrinsic CGRP-immunoreactive neurons; therefore, the CGRP-immunoreactive gastric axons are probably of extrinsic origin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Effect of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide on the release of serotonin from the in vitro vascularly perfused small intestine of guinea pig

Isolated segments of the guinea pig small intestine were vascularly perfused and the release of endogenous serotonin (5-HT) and its metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) into the portal vein was measured. All test substances were intraarterially perfused. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP, 1 pmol/l-100 nmol/l) inhibited the spontaneous release of 5-HT and 5-HIAA. The maximal inhibitory effect (about 60%) was seen at 100 pmol/l. The effect of VIP on the spontaneous release of 5-HT and 5-HIAA was not changed in the presence of 1 mumol/l tetrodotoxin (TTX). Raising intraluminal pressure by 500 Pa for 5 min increased the release of 5-HT and 5-HIAA by about 25%. Raising the intraluminal pressure in the presence of VIP reduced the release of 5-HT and 5-HIAA by about 75%. In the presence of TTX (1 mumol/l), raising intraluminal pressure also caused a decrease of the release of 5-HT and 5-HIAA which was unaffected by the additional presence of VIP. The fluid volume expelled during peristaltic activity was not affected by VIP, but reduced by about 90% in the presence of TTX. In conclusion the results demonstrate a direct inhibitory effect of VIP on the release of 5-HT from the enterochromaffin cells. In addition, VIP appears to interfere with the neuronally mediated stimulation of 5-HT release during peristaltic activity.