J Neurogastroenterol Motil.  2013 Apr;19(2):161-170.

Gastrointestinal Motility Changes and Myenteric Plexus Alterations in Spontaneously Diabetic Biobreeding Rats

• Demedts I
• Masaoka T
• Kindt S
• De Hertogh G
• Geboes K
• Farre R
• Vanden Berghe P
• Tack J

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Type 1 diabetes is often accompanied by gastrointestinal motility disturbances. Vagal neuropathy, hyperglycemia, and alterations in the myenteric plexus have been proposed as underlying mechanism. We therefore studied the relationship between vagal function, gastrointestinal motiliy and characteristics of the enteric nervous system in the biobreeding (BB) rat known as model for spontaneous type 1 diabetes.
METHODS
Gastric emptying breath test, small intestinal electromyography, relative risk-interval variability, histology and immunohistochemistry on antral and jejunal segments were performed at 1, 8 and 16 weeks after diabetes onset and on age-matched controls.
RESULTS
We observed no consistent changes in relative risk-interval variability and gastric emptying rate. There was however, a loss of phases 3 with longer duration of diabetes on small intestinal electromyography. We found a progressive decrease of nitrergic neurons in the myenteric plexus of antrum and jejunum, while numbers of cholinergic nerve were not altered. In addition, a transient inflammatory infiltrate in jejunal wall was found in spontaneous diabetic BB rats at 8 weeks of diabetes.
CONCLUSIONS
In diabetic BB rats, altered small intestinal motor control associated with a loss of myenteric nitric oxide synthase expression occurs, which does not depend on hyperglycemia or vagal dysfunction, and which is preceded by transient intestinal inflammation.

Keyword

Diabetes mellitus; Electromyography; Enteric nervous system; Gastric empyting; Rats, inbred BB

MeSH Terms

Animals
Breath Tests
Carbamates
Diabetes Mellitus
Electromyography
Enteric Nervous System
Gastric Emptying
Gastrointestinal Motility
Hyperglycemia
Immunohistochemistry
Inflammation
Jejunum
Myenteric Plexus
Nitrergic Neurons
Nitric Oxide Synthase
Organometallic Compounds
Rats
Rats, Inbred BB
Carbamates
Nitric Oxide Synthase
Organometallic Compounds