MYENTERIC PLEXUS IN STREPTOZOTOCIN-TREATED RATS - NEUROCHEMICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL EVIDENCE FOR DIABETIC NEUROPATHY IN THE GUT

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 86  (4) , 654-661
Abstract
Adrenergic, cholinergic and serotoninergic nerves were studied in the myenteric plexus of ileum and colon from streptozotocin-treated rats, an animal model of juvenile-onset diabetes. In view of clinical reports implicating diabetic autonomic neuropathy as the cause of gastrointestinal dysfunction in diabetes mellitus, neurochemical and histochemical techniques were used to study changes in the innervation of the gut. In the myenteric plexus of the ileum from diabetic animals, adrenergic nerves displayed signs of degeneration and the brightness of fluorescence in serotonin-like immunoreactive nerves was lower. Cholinergic nerves, however, did not display any signs of reduction in the ileum, and both choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase activities per centimeter were increased. In contrast, in the proximal colon 8 wk after induction of diabetes, neurochemical assays revealed significant increases in noradenaline [norepinephrine] and serotonin levels as well as choline acetyltransferase activity, although no obvious changes in the pattern of innervation could be detected histochemically. Changes do occur in the innervation of the gut of the streptozotocin-diabetic model shortly after the induction of diabetes, although they differ significantly in the ileum and colon; they may be of relevance to the types of gastrointestinal dysfunction displayed in human diabetes.

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