Excitatory synaptic potentials due to activation of neurons with short projections in the myenteric plexus

Intracellular microelectrodes have been used to examine the effects, on excitatory inputs to myenteric nerve cells, of lesions of intrinsic pathways in the myenteric plexus of the guinea-pig small intestine. The lesions consisted of circumferential cuts (myotomies) which severed the external musculature to the depth of the submucosa and thus interrupted pathways in the myenteric plexus. Sufficient time was allowed between creating the lesions and recording from the neurons for the endings of severed neurites to degenerate and this was confirmed histochemically by examining the distribution of varicose fibres with 5-hydroxytryptamine immunoreactivity in myenteric ganglia from which recordings were made. Two types of excitatory input, eliciting fast and slow excitatory post-synaptic potentials, respectively, were demonstrable in response to focal stimulation of nerves in the ganglia from which recordings were made. There were no differences in the proportions of neurons in which fast or slow excitatory synaptic potentials were evoked in unoperated preparations (controls), in islands 1.5-4 mm wide between myotomies, or within 1 mm on the oral or anal sides of myotomies. Possible differences in the amplitudes, durations at half amplitude, and threshold numbers of stimuli for initiation of slow excitatory synaptic potentials were analyzed. The only significant differences were found when data from control and oral areas were pooled and compared with combined data from island and anal areas (this assessed differences that could arise from severing nerve fibres running from oral to anal).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)