Neural and anatomical abnormalities of the gastrointestinal system resulting from contusion spinal cord injury

Abstract Gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI) are challenging disorders that have not been examined experimentally using clinically relevant models. In this study, female Sprague–Dawley rats ( n =5/group×4: T10–T11 contusion, laminectomy, or naïve) were fasted for 24 h before being submitted to dye recovery assays (Phenol Red solution, 1.5 ml/rat; per oral) on GI emptying/transiting at 48 h or 4 weeks postinjury (p.i.). Compared with controls, SCI significantly increased dye recovery rate (DRR, determined by spectrophotometry) in the duodenum (+84.6%) and stomach (+32.6%), but decreased it in the jejunum (−64.1% and −49.5%) and ileum (−73.6% and −70.1%) at 48 h and 4 weeks p.i., respectively ( P ≤0.005, ANOVA with post hoc t -test). Electrophysiological analysis revealed that purinergic fast inhibitory junction potential (IJP) was reduced ∼30% in the antrum and duodenum of rats 48 h p.i. (numbers of animals/numbers of tissue samples=3/7; P