Augmentation of Gastric Secretion by Cooling the Mucosa of Heidenhain Pouches

In an earlier paper (1) we have described an augmentation of acid and pepsin secretion from both innervated gastric mucosa and a Heidenhain pouch following cooling of the mucosa of an innervated pyloric pouch. β-Adrenergic receptors seem to play a part in this. Debas et al. (2, 3) have described vagally mediated pyloro-oxyntic reflexes which result in elevations of blood gastrin and/or acid secretion.

In our first series of experiments cooling a Heidenhain pouch in animals with a gastric fistula did not augment pentagastrin-stimulated secretion from the fistula; on rewarming the pouch, however, the fistula secretion was significantly diminished (1). The data reported here are a reexamination of this phenomenon

Methods. The animals used were five dogs with Heidenhain pouches, four of which in addition had innervated antral pouches of the Pavlov type, and finally six animals which 18 months previously had had their left gastric, right gastroepiploic arteries and accompanying nerves ligated and cut. Three of these animals had Heidenhain pouches and three Pavlov (4). All six of these responded normally to PG.

The fundic pouches were irrigated with water for 60 min at 37°, for a further hour at 5° and finally at 37° again while secretion was stimulated submaximally either with methacholine or pentagastrh 2 The irrigation system consisted of a rubber tube attached to the pouch cannula instead of the Malecot catheter used earlier (1). The outflow end of the catheter was always 1 cm above the point where the pouch cannula emerged from the abdominal wall. Gastric juice was collected from the fistula only.

The same warm-cool sequence was used in the main stomach without any stimulus, during methacholine and pentagastrin stimulation and also in four animals during irrigation of the antral pouch with 0.5% acetylcholine. In this case water was circulated through a 10-m loop of polyethylene tube which had been inserted through the gastric cannula.