EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON GASTROINTESTINAL MOTILITY IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

Abstract

The symptoms of urgency, diarrhea and nausea are exhibited in inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis. The correlation among the changes of motility in gastrointestinal tracts and the symptoms were investigated using a model of acute colitis in ten dogs. Colitis was induced by acetic acid and the motility in gastrointestinal tracts was recorded with strain gauge transducers. The dogs exhibited urgency and diarrhea with mucus and blood during colitis. At the same time, the motor activity of the colon and stomach changed during colitis: 1) the incidence of colonic motor complexes (CMCs) were significantly decreased ; 2) the total duration per hour and mean duration of CMCs also decreased significantly ; 3) the incidence of giant migrating contractions (GMCs) increased significantly ; and 4) interdigestive migrating complex (IMC) of the stomach was disrupted and changed to irregular pattern. The response of colonic motility to a meal during colitis was also investigated. As the result, 1) the incidence of CMCs had a tendency to increase in the early postprandial periods in the proximal and distal colon and 2) the incidence of GMCs had similar effects to the incidence of CMCs. These findings may indicate that Gastro-Colonic Response during colitis, similarly to the normal colon, remains. There was no significant difference between the cleansed and uncleansed colon during colitis or in the normal colon. On the other hand, there was significant shortening of the mouth to caecum transit time during colitis. In conclusion, the changes in gastric and colonic motor activity, including the shortening of the mouth to caecum transit time, may be related to the abdominal symptoms accompanied by acute colitis. Moreover, the change of colonic motility including CMCs and GMCs in the early postprandial period indicates a close correlation between worseing of abdominal symptoms and up-take of meal.