Neural mechanisms involved in the delay of gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit of liquid after thoracic spinal cord transection in awake rats

Spinal cord transection (SCT) delays gastric emptying (GE), and intestinal and gastrointestinal (GI) transit of liquid in awake rats. This study evaluates the neural mechanisms involved in this phenomenon. Male Wistar rats ( N=147) were fasted for 16 h and had the left jugular vein cannulated followed by laminectomy or laminectomy+complete SCT between T 4 and T 5 vertebrae. The next day, a test meal (1.5 ml of a phenol red solution, 0.5 mg/ml in 5% glucose) was administered by gavage feeding and 10 min later cervical dislocation was performed. Dye recovery in the stomach, and proximal, mid and distal small intestine was determined by spectrophotometry. SCT inhibited GE and GI transit since it increased gastric recovery by 71.3% and decreased mid small intestine recovery by 100% ( P