Evaluation of adaptive relaxation of the rat stomach using an orally inserted balloon instead of surgical intervention by demonstrating the effects of capsaicin and Nω-nitro-L-arginine methylester

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Gastric functions such as adaptive relaxation have usually been monitored in rats using a surgically inserted barostat’s balloon. However, surgery causes physiological damage to the rat stomach. This study is an investigation of adaptive relaxation of the rat stomach using a slightly modified balloon, which is introduced into the stomach through the mouth of anesthetized rats without the need for balloon surgery, attached to a brostat. In this case, the balloon was placed between the fore-stomach and the fundus, but towards the fore-stomach. The balloon volume increased gradually just after an increment in the balloon pressure, and reached a plateau within 1 min. This increased volume just after the increment of the balloon pressure was defined as adaptive relaxation. Adaptive relaxation increased with pressure increases in a pressure dependent manner. Pre-treatment with Nω-nitro-L-arginine methylester (30 mg/kg, i.v.) caused this adaptive relaxation to be significantly inhibited as compared with the control. On the contrary, adaptive relaxation was significantly enhanced by pre-treatment with capsaicin (0.5 mg/kg, p.o.). These findings show that this method is both useful for investigating the physiology of adaptive relaxation of the stomach without surgery and to show that nitric oxide plays an important role in the adaptive relaxation of the stomach as reported previously.