Dissimilarity between the responses to adenosine triphosphate or its related compounds and non-adrenergic inhibitory nerve stimulation in the longitudinal smooth muscle of pig stomach.

1 Transmural electrical stimulation (TMS) of longitudinal smooth muscle strips taken from the cardiac portion of the pig stomach produced biphasic responses consisting of initial contractions followed by relaxations. The excitatory component was enhanced by neostigmine and abolished by atropine. After atropine treatment, TMS and nicotine or 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenyl-piperazinium, caused a relaxation or a relaxation followed by an after-contraction. All of these responses were abolished or reduced reversibly with tetrodotoxin and cocaine, while hexamethonium only abolished the response to ganglion-stimulating agents.2 The relaxation caused by TMS reached a maximum amplitude at 5-10 Hz, and was entirely resistant to the effects of alpha- and beta-adrenoceptor blocking agents, or a combination of them, and also to guanethidine. These results strongly suggested that the relaxation was elicited by stimulation of intramural non-adrenergic inhibitory neurones.3 In the presence of atropine and guanethidine, adenosine triphosphate (ATP, 5-20 muM) caused only a tonic contraction, and ATP (25-200 muM) or adenosine diphosphate (25-200 muM) produced a contractile response or a biphasic one (tonic contraction preceded by a slight relaxation). Adenosine monophosphate and adenosine caused only the tonic contraction over the range of concentrations (25-200 muM).4 Stimulation of the intramural inhibitory neurones of the tissue consistently evoked an inhibitory junction potential, which showed a summation during repetitive stimulation. One the other hand, ATP elicited mainly a small depolarization of a few mV.5 When the desensitization to ATP of the muscle was achieved in the presence of atropine and guanethidine, the relaxation induced by stimulation of the non-adrenergic inhibitory neurones could be evoked without any modification.6 Dipyridamole neither potentiated the inhibitory responses due to stimulation of the intramural inhibitory neurones nor showed any consistent effect on the ATP-induced response.7 From these results, it is unlikely that ATP, or any related compound, is the transmitter substance of the intramural inhibitory neurones in the longitudinal smooth muscle of the pig stomach.