Involvement of autonomic nervous system in gastric mucosal defense mechanism

This article describes the histochemical, immunohistochemical, radioautographic, and ultrastructural localizations of aminergic and peptidergic nerves, neurotransmitter receptors, and their binding sites in the stomach wall. Cholinergic and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-ergic nerve fibers are distributed along the gastric microvasculature, within the myenteric and submucosal plexuses, and in the muscularis mucosae and circular muscle layer. In the mucosa, both nerve fibers evenly extend along the capillaries in association with the epithelial cells up to the mucosal surface. In particular, cholinergic nerves are proved to doubly innervate the mucosal capillaries and nonmuscular venules as well as the parietal cells. Adrenergic and neuropeptide Y (NPY)-containing nerves are distributed primarily along the arterioles of the gastric microvasculature, within the myenteric plexuses, and in the circular muscle layer. These nerve fibers extend up to the basal portion of the mucosa in close association with small arterioles, capillaries, and epithelial cells. Some of the adrenergic nerve axons are coexistent with the cholinergic nerve axons within the Schwann cell. Histamine H1 receptors are widely located on the walls of arterioles, capillaries and venules, while H2 receptors are evident not only on the parietal cells but also on the walls of the collecting venules and surrounding capillaries in the mucosa. Dopamine D1 receptors are predominantly located on the smooth muscle cells of the arterioles near the muscularis mucosae, while D2 receptors are present on the walls of postcapillary venules and collecting venules. Functional coordination of both intramural peptidergic nerves as intrinsic origin and aminergic nerves as extrinsic origin is considered to be essential for maintaining the gastric mucosal defense mechanism against a variety of aggressive factors.