The gastrointestinal myoelectric response to 13-Nle-motilin infusion during interdigestive and digestive states in the conscious dog.

Gastrointestinal myoelectric activity was studied in three conscious fasted dogs with electrodes surgically implanted in the stomach and small intestine, during separate and combined intravenous infusions of 13-norleucine motilin (13-nle-motilin) and pentagastrin (PG). Basal recordings confirmed the presence of regular interdigestive myoelectric complexes (MC's). 13-nle-motilin infusion below 50 ng/kg-h was without effect: higher doses up to 400 ng/kg-h resulted in the interpolation of one or more MC's in the spontaneous sequence. The rate of aboral transit of 13-nle-molitin-induced MC's did not differ significantly from that of spontaneous MC's. When MC's were abolished by feeding or PG infusion, simultaneous 13-nle-motilin administration was without effect on spike activity, but slightly attenuated the accelerating effect of gastrin on the gastric pacemaker frequency. The myoelectric events triggered by 13-nle-motilin suggest that in the conscious dog the polypeptide may not act directly on the smooth muscle cell, as it does in vitro, but through an extra-enteric neural control mechanism which is uncoupled by gastrin.