Neural integration of jejunal motility and ion transport in nematode-infected ferrets. Greenwood, Beverley, and Jeffrey M. Palmer. Oklahoma Foundation for Digestive Research, Oklahoma City, OK 73104 U.S.A., and Department of Biomedical Sciences, Creighton University School of Medicine, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178 U.S.A.
APStracts 3:0006G, 1996.
Jejunal motility, measured manometrically, and coupled fluctuations in electrogenic ion transport, measured as transmural potential difference (PD), were simultaneously studied in ferrets infected with enteric stages of the parasitic nematode, Trichinella spiralis. Vagotomy in uninfected ferrets abolished jejunal motility clusters and associated PD oscillations. Conversely, in infected ferrets on days 8-12 postinfection (PI) vagotomy did not abolish jejunal motility and PD. Calculated motility indices (MI) indicated that post-vagotomy MI decreased to 12% of pre-vagotomy MI in uninfected ferrets, while in Trichinella-infected ferrets post-vagotomy MI declined only to 48% of pre-vagotomy MI. Atropine abolished all vagotomy-resistant residual jejunal motility clusters and PD oscillations in Trichinella-infected ferrets. Decreased intestinal content of substance P (27% of control) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (41% of control), and increased myeloperoxidase activity (262% of control) were detected in Trichinella-infected ferrets. Our results suggest that integrated neural control of muscular and epithelial effectors in the small bowel is altered by nematode -induced inflammation. 

Received 3 March 1995; accepted in final form 19 December 1995.
APS Manuscript Number G100-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 22 January 96