A comparative study of the vagal innervation of the stomach in man and the ferret.

The anatomy of the gastro-intestinal tract of the ferret is quite well known. Recent reports include work on the stomach (Stephens & Pfeiffer, 1968; Pfeiffer & Peters, 1969; Pfeiffer, 1970), biliary system (Poddar, 1977) and intestine (Bueno, Fioramonti & More, 1981). However, there is no description available of the innervation of the gut of the ferret. Due to the interest in the ferret as an animal for gastro-intestinal research, the main objective of this study was to describe the parasympathetic innervation of the upper digestive tract, to complement previous physiological studies on the vagal control of the stomach. An opportunity was also taken to re-examine the vagal innervation of the human stomach as a basis for a comparative study of the innervation of the human and ferret stomachs, which is of particular importance because the ferret has been shown to be a suitable model for man in terms of the gross gastric anatomy (Pfeiffer, 1970; Poddar & Murgatroyd, 1977), gastric acid secretion in response to various stimuli (Pfeiffer & Peters, 1969; Basso et al. 1971; Basso & Passaro, 1972) and the vagal regulation of gastric motility (Andrews & Scratcherd, 1980). An anatomical study of the gastric innervation in the ferret is also important if this animal is to be of use, as an alternative to cats and dogs, as a model for various gastric surgical procedures, e.g. superficial seromyotomy (Taylor, 1979). This study of the ferret and human vagus nerves was carried out at several levels: gross dissections of whole specimens were used to elucidate the general distribution of the nerves; the fibre composition was examined using both light and electron microscopy and the electrophysiological characteristics of the major nerve trunks were investigated by recording the compound action potentials in fresh excised nerves. In the ferret, the distribution of the vagus nerve was also investigated by nerve stimulation and the recording of motility in various parts of the gut.

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