Seasonal variation in gastric myoelectrical activity in young Japanese females

Abstract

In order to test our hypothesis that there is seasonal variation in digestion and absorption of dietary carbohydrate from the intestine, we previously determined the amount of unabsorbed carbohydrate after breakfast by the breath hydrogen test in the four seasons. In pursuing our hypothesis further, we also recorded gastric myoelectrical activity before and after the breakfasts. In the current report, we describe the seasonality of gastric myoelectrical activity. Twenty-six Japanese female subjects were studied in winter, spring, summer and autumn. The cutaneous electrogastrogram was analysed by spectral analysis to compute the pre- and post-prandial dominant slow wave frequency (DF), and percentage of the 2 – 4 cpm gastric slow wave (Normal %). Two-factor ANOVA indicated that there was no significant seasonal variation in DF and Normal %. These results indicate that seasonal variations in digestion and absorption of dietary carbohydrate are caused by factors other than gastric and small intestinal motility.

Keywords:

• Seasonal variation
• gastrointestinal activity
• electrogastrography

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Ms. Kuniko Tsukamoto and Sakiko Sugiyama for their technical assistance. The authors sincerely thank Professor J. Waterhouse, UK, for his comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This work was supported by Grants-in Aid for Scientific Research (No. 15207024) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.