Two new peptides to improve post-operative gastric ileus in dog

Peptides can influence gastrointestinal motility, and from data obtained earlier in rats, we hypothesized that MTL-RP/Ghrelin, as well as CGRP receptor antagonist 8–37, could improve gastric post-operative ileus in dog. Dogs submitted to laparotomy were perfused with or saline or CGRP 8–37 or MTL-RP/Ghrelin on days 1–4 post-operatively while gastric emptying was estimated by measuring the postprandial increase in plasma acetaminophen ingested with a meal. As expected, in saline-treated animals the gastric emptying function was impaired post-operatively. The total amount of acetaminophen emptied (AUC over 150 min) on post-operative days 1–4 reached respectively 31±5%, 65±8%, 60±8% and 62±8% of the normal emptying capacity. CGRP antagonist increased the total emptying of acetaminophen to 52±5% on day 1, 95±2% on day 2 and 103±3% ( P