Role of nitric oxide and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in vagally mediated relaxation of the gastric corpus in the anaesthetized ferret.

The roles of VIP and NO in vagally mediated relaxations of the gastric corpus were investigated in the anaesthetized ferret. Intracorpus pressure was recorded manometrically during electrical stimulation of the cervical vagus nerve in three groups of animals: one control group (n = 6), one group treated with an inhibitor of NO synthesis (NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), 1.6 mg/kg); and a third group which had been immunized, prior to the experiment, with a VIP-thyroglobulin conjugate (25 nmol equivalent) in Freund's complete adjuvant. In control animals, following treatment with atropine (100 micrograms/kg), vagal stimulation resulted in a frequency dependent fall in intracorpus pressure with the maximum response at 5 Hz of 2.2 +/- 0.3 cm H2O. Two components of the response could be observed: an initial rapid fall over the first 10 s of stimulation followed by a slower decline over the remainder of the stimulation period. In animals treated with L-NAME (n = 6) the initial rapid response was significantly reduced at all frequencies of stimulation (P < 0.05 - P < 0.005, Mann-Whitney U-test) leaving only the slower second component. In immunized animals (n = 6) the initial rapid response to vagal stimulation was not different from control but the slower second component was significantly reduced at 1 Hz (P < 0.005). We conclude that the response to vagal stimulation appears to consist of two components which can be differentiated using L-NAME and autoimmunization to VIP.