Sympathetic influences on circulation of the gastric mucosa of the rat

¹ Medical Clinic, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

A method is presented for quantitatively evaluating the gastric mucosal blood content in rats by densitometric measurement of the India ink content of the mucosa following the intra-aortic injection of India ink in the living animal. Animals injected after laparotomy alone showed a very sparse accumulation of India ink in the mucosa. Interruption of the sympathetic nerve supply to the stomach by splanchnic anesthesia or splanchnic section produced a marked filling of the mucosal capillary bed. The mucosal capillaries of the animals undergoing splanchnic section presented considerably more India ink than after splanchnic anesthesia. Rats injected after death presented the greatest amount of India ink in the mucosal capillaries. It is concluded that modification of the sympathetic innervation of the stomach in the rat leads to changes in the blood content of the mucosal capillaries.