title: Undernournishment and Yersinia enterocolitica enterocolitis alter intestinal contractility in the rabbit: role of smooth muscle contractile protein content.
abstract: Previous studies have demonstrated that the longitudinal smooth muscle of rabbits infected with Yersinia enterocolitica and undernourished because of reduced food intake exhibit a significantly reduced ability to develop tension in response to carbachol compared with pair-fed animals, which are uninfected but equivalently undernourished. To determine whether the alteration in smooth muscle contractility results from changes in cell number (hypo- or hyperplasia), or in contractile protein content or isoform distribution, New Zealand White rabbits (600 to 1000 g) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: infected, pair-fed or control. Tissue contractility was measured, morphometric studies were performed and immunoassays were developed for the measurement of total actin, gamma-enteric and alpha-vascular isoactins, and myosin heavy chain. Consistent with what was found in previous reports, the contractility of longitudinal smooth muscle in response to carbachol was found to increase in pair-fed animals and to decrease in Y enterocolitica-infected animals. There was no significant change in the proportional thickness of the ileal longitudinal smooth muscle coat, and the number of cross-sectioned longitudinal smooth muscle cells/mm2 was not significantly different in infected, pair-fed or control tissues. Immunoassay indicated that the proportion of each specific contractile protein, relative to total protein content in the muscularis propria, was unaffected by Y enterocolitica infection or by pair-feeding. Thus, the alterations in intestinal longitudinal smooth muscle function observed after Y enterocolitica infection were concluded not to be associated with tissue hypo- or hyperplasia, or changes in the total content or isoform distribution of contractile proteins in the muscularis propria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004760:Enterocolitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology; D007082:Ileum / Q000502:physiology; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011817:Rabbits; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D011897:Random Allocation; D012016:Reference Values; D015009:Yersinia Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica
chemical_list: D009124:Muscle Proteins