On the Role of Intramural Nerves in the Pathogenesis of Cholera Toxin-induced Intestinal Secretion

Abstract

Intestinal secretion was produced in anesthetized cats and rats by exposing isolated intestinal segments to cholera enterotoxin. Giving, for example, tetrodotoxin, a nerve-conduction-blocking agent, or adding lidocaine, a local anesthetic agent, to the solution in the intestinal segments markedly inhibited the rate of choleraic secretion, and in most experiments a net absorption of fluid was observed. The results suggest that intramural nervous mechanisms are involved in the pathogenesis of choleraic secretion.

Key-words:

• Cholera
• intestinal nerves
• intestinal secretion
• lidocaine
• tetrodotoxin