Comparative study of secretion by vagotomized and isotransplanted stomachs in the rat

An acute observation of gastric secretion by syngeneic stomach transplants in Lewis male rats was compared to the gastric secretory fate of normal, pylorus-ligated, vagotomized, and combined pylorus ligation and vagotomized Lewis rats. A 5 day observation was sufficient before sympathetic fibers and vagal channels could be regenerated. A total of 36 rats were divided into five groups of which group I (ten normals), group II (five vagotomized), group III (pylorus-ligated), group IV (six vagotomized and pylorus-ligated), and group V (five syngeneic stomach-transplanted, five animals served as donors), and those stomachs were intubated to collect gastric juice by housing animals in Bollman cages. Whereas group V animals secreted a mean 24 hr gastric juice volume of 12.5 +/- 6.4 ml with free acid secretion of 0.15 +/- 0.01 mEq/24 hr, animals in groups I, II, III, and IV secreted 24.4 +/- 2.9 ml, 23.3 +/- 1.1 ml, 25.5 +/- 3.4 ml, 22.4 +/- 0.5 ml, respectively, for 24 hr periods with free acid secretions of varying rates. From these observations, the transplanted stomach mean secretory rate averaged half that of the normal stomach.