Intrinsic reflexes underlying peristalsis in the small intestine of the domestic fowl.

Peristalsis in the chicken small intestine was studied using either a modified Trendelenburg method or a technique in which changes in circular muscle activity were recorded in response to application of a localized radial distension. A localized radial distension had no effect on either the resting tension or the spontaneous activity of the circular muscle on the oral side of distension. On the aboral side of the distension a transient contraction was recorded in the ileum and jejunum after a mean delay of 2.74 s at 37 degrees C. In about a third of the preparations a tonic contraction was also present which persisted for as long as distension was maintained. The transient contraction was blocked by hyoscine (0.6-2.3 microM) and hexamethonium (275 microM); whereas the tonic contraction persisted in the presence of hyoscine. Both types of contraction were blocked by tetrodotoxin (0.31 microM). No such responses were recorded in the duodenum. The descending excitatory reflex responses were followed in all preparations by a fall in the amplitude and frequency of spontaneous contractions and in a few preparations by a concomitant fall in the tone of the circular muscle lasting for up to 3 min. This inhibitory component of the descending reflex was not blocked by guanethidine (3-10 microM). The transient contraction, which originated most frequently at the site of distension, always propagated aborally at a mean speed of 14.2 mm s-1. Surgical interruption of the longitudinal muscle and myenteric plexus effectively blocked the transmission of the excitatory and inhibitory components of the descending reflex past the site of the lesion. In the modified Trendelenburg apparatus raising the intraluminal pressure elicited peristalsis in the isolated ileum. Peristaltic contractions never started at the most oral end of the preparation but appeared instead at any other point on the ileum. This resulted in several contractions contributing to each emptying cycle. Peristalsis was blocked by tetrodotoxin (0.31 microM). These results are discussed in the terms of the organization of the descending reflex. It is suggested that within the enteric nervous system of the ileum and jejunum of the chicken, there are cholinergic and non-cholinergic excitatory neurones and non-adrenergic inhibitory neurones. The results of this study demonstrate that neurogenic peristalsis in the avian small intestine does not conform to the 'law of the intestine' as originally postulated by Bayliss & Starling (1899).