SOME PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CIRCULAR AND LONGITUDINAL MUSCLE STRIPS FROM THE GUINEA-PIG ISOLATED ILEUM

A circular and a longitudinal muscle strip were prepared from adjacent parts of a guinea-pig ileum and a direct pharmacological comparison made under identical conditions. The longitudinal preparation was sensitive to acetylcholine, methacholine, carbachol, 5-hydroxytryptamine, histamine and nicotine, while the circular preparation was insensitive to 5-hydroxytryptamine, histamine and nicotine, and responded to the choline esters only in high concentrations. Incubation of the preparations with the anticholinesterase, mipafox (NN-diisopropylphosphodiamidic fluoride), sensitized both preparations to the action of acetylcholine; potentiation of the contraction of the longitudinal muscle was 16-times; that of the circular one 4,000-times. The longitudinal muscle was more sensitive than the circular muscle to acetylcholine whether both were treated with mipafox or not. Bradykinin and substance P both stimulated the longitudinal but not the circular muscle, an effect not modified after mipafox. Hyoscine antagonized the responses of the circular muscle strip, treated with mipafox, to acetylcholine and to histamine, but on the longitudinal muscle strip the response to histamine was not affected, the response to acetylcholine being competitively antagonized. Morphine, in the same concentrations on both circular and longitudinal muscle strips, antagonized the stimulant actions of nicotine and to a lesser extent of 5-hydroxytryptamine, but the responses to histamine on the longitudinal muscle strip were not antagonized by morphine which was in contrast to its action on the circular muscle strip. These observations showed that the main differences in the responses of the circular and longitudinal muscle of the guinea-pig ileum to drugs were in the intrinsic properties of the smooth muscle cells. In addition cholinesterase may protect the circular muscle cells. Finally the circular muscle strip preparation proved to be a useful tool to study the action of drugs on the nervous plexuses of the ileum of the guinea-pig.