It has been reported that interdigestive motor activities occur in the gallbladder and sphincter of Oddi as well as in the gastroduodenal tract and truncal vagus nerves modulate the gastroduodenal motility pattern. In the present study, the vagal branches which influence on the interdigestive motor activity of these organs were determined in conscious dogs. In the normal dog, interdigestive motor activities closely related to interdigestive migrating motor complex (IMC) in the gastric antrum and descending duodenum were recorded in the gallbladder and sphincter of Oddi. In dogs whose celiac branches of the vagus nerve were chronically resected, cycle periods of interdigestive motor activity in the stomach, duodenum, gallbladder and sphincter of Oddi significantly prolonged as compared with those in the normal dog but the interrelation of them persisted. Quiescent period in motility prolonged and the active period shortened. Resection of the pyloric branches had no influence on the interdigestive motor activities in all organs. The results imply that celiac branches of the vagus nerve modulate the interdigestive motor activety in the stomach, descending duodenum, gallbladder and sphincter of Oddi.

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To investigate the alteration of the gastric electrical activities by aging, we performed electrogastrography (EGG) on 13 asymptomatic young human subjects under 60 years old (the young group) and 12 subjects over 60 years (the elderly group). Surface EGG was recorded at fasting state for 30 minutes in each subject. We expressed the frequency distribution of surface EGG in each subject with the median value of frequency distribution (F_MED) to represent the center of the electrical activities, and the interquartile range of frequency distribution (F_IQR) as the indicator of regularity. F_MED in the young group was 3.0: [2.9, 3.4] (median: [range]) cycles per minute (cpm), while it was 3.3: [3.0, 4.0] in the elderly group which showed statistically a significant difference between the groups (p=0.01). F_IQR in the young group was 0.5: [0.1, 1.8] and that in the elderly group was 0.55: [0.4, 1.7], which was not significantly different statistically. These data showed that aging increases the frequencies of the rhythm of surface EGG, without disturbing its regularity. This change may be a part of a spectrum of physiological changes accompanied with aging, and are unlikely to have clinico-pathological significance.

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Differences in the influences of endothelium-derived nitric oxside (NO) on α-agonistsinduced contraction in the aortae of spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats were studied by blocking NO synthesis with N^G-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA). L-NNA potentiated the contraction induced by noradrenaline. The potentiation was smaller in the preparation from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) than in the preparation from Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Similar potentiation was observed in the contraction induced by phenylephrine; the potentiation was also smaller in the preparation from SHRSP. α²-agonists, clonidine and UK-14304 induced dose-dependent contraction only in the presence of L-NNA. The dose-response curves for α²-agonists in SHRSP aorta were different from those in WKY aorta; the maximum tension was observed at the concentration of 10^-6 M in the preparation from WKY, while the contraction further increased up to 10^-4 M in the preparation from WKY. Noradrenaline, clonidine and UK-14304 but not phenyrephrine induced relaxation which was blocked by L-NNA. The relaxation was impaired in the preparation from SHRSP in greater extent than that by acetylcholine. It is suggested that basic or noradrenaline-stimulated NO release from endothelium decreased in the preparation from SHRSP and that α²-adrenoceptor of both the endothelium and smooth muscle may be altered in the preparation from SHRSP.

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Correlation between gastric emptying time measured by a radioisotope method and plasma acetoaminophen level was studied in 11 preoperative early gastric cancer in semisolid meal.
A significant correlation was found between both gastric emptying half-time and plasma acetoaminophen level at 30, 45 minutes after ingestion of meal, and plasma acetoaminophen level at maximun.
We conclude that acetoaminophen analysis is useful to measure gastric emptying at semisolid meal.

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