title: Chemical denervation of the myenteric plexus of the muscular stomach of turkeys.
abstract: 1. The thin caudoventral muscle (TCM) of the muscular stomach of domestic turkeys was surgically exposed and painted with solutions of saline or 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0% benzalkonium chloride (BC), a cationic surfactant shown to irreversibly damage neurons but not muscle tissue in mammals. 2. Following fluoroscopic observations of gastric motility for 2 weeks, turkeys were euthanized, the entire muscular stomach was excised and weighed, and serial frozen sections of the TCM were taken for evaluation of the number and size of neurons in the myenteric plexus. 3. Treatment with 0.5 and 1.0% BC resulted in loss of motility in the TCM, significant hypertrophy (P less than 0.001) of the CTM, a 70% decrease in number and 60% decrease in size of myenteric neurons, and a 4-fold increase in thickness of the serosa, compared with saline-treated controls.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001548:Benzalkonium Compounds / Q000633:toxicity; D005260:Female; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009121:Muscle Denervation; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000294:innervation*; D009197:Myenteric Plexus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D013270:Stomach / Q000294:innervation; D014422:Turkeys
chemical_list: D001548:Benzalkonium Compounds