Ruminal muscle of sheep is innervated by non-polarized pathways of cholinergic and nitrergic myenteric neurones.

The motility patterns of the reticulorumen evoke mainly mixing of the ingesta. So far unknown, intrinsic neural circuits of the enteric nervous system are involved in the control of these motility patterns. The aim of the study was to characterize neurochemically sheep ruminal myenteric neurones, in particular the neural pathways innervating the ruminal muscle layers. Cell bodies within the myenteric plexus projecting to the longitudinal or circular muscle layer were retrogradely labelled by direct application of the fluorescent tracer 1,1'-didodecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethyl indocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) onto the circular or longitudinal muscle. The neurochemical code of myenteric neurones was identified by their immunoreactivity for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), nitric oxide synthase (NOS), substance P (SP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). According to their neurochemical code, ruminal myenteric neurones were divided into three populations: ChAT/SP (68% of all myenteric neurones), NOS/VIP (26% of all myenteric neurones) and ChAT/- (5% of all myenteric neurones). Application of DiI onto the circular or longitudinal muscle revealed on average 64 or 44 labelled cell bodies in the myenteric plexus, respectively. DiI-labelled neurones expressed the code ChAT/SP or NOS/VIP. In the pathways to circular or longitudinal muscle, ChAT/SP-positive neurones outnumbered NOS/VIP-immunoreactive neurones by 5:1 and 2:1. Pathways to the circular or longitudinal muscle did not exhibit any pronounced polarized innervation patterns. This study demonstrated specific projections of myenteric neurones to the ruminal muscle. Neurones expressing the code ChAT/SP might function as excitatory muscle motor neurones, whereas NOS/VIP neurones are likely to act as inhibitory muscle motor neurones.