English

Marcelo Biondaro Góis

doi:10.15436/2377-0619.14.012

Abstract

The effects of different protein levels associated with vitamin deprivation have also been evaluated on tissues of high and low cell renewal. This study aimed to investigate the effects of available diet with 4% protein content associated with the maintenance of vitamin levels on the morphology of NADPH dp+ myenteric neurons of rats’ descending colon. Sixteen animals were randomly distributed into two groups, one that was fed with chow with 26% protein content (CG), and the other was fed with a 4% protein content diet (EG) during 12 weeks. Total preparations were utilized to make the myenteric plexus neurons of the descending colon evident when submitted to NADPH-diaphorase. The cellular bodies and nucleus of 300 neurons from each animal was measured. The diet with 4% protein and maintenance of vitamin and mineral content, similar to the ones found in normal protein diets, causes metabolic alterations that result in body weight loss. The myenteric neurons of the descending colon have non-significant reduction in the nucleus size whereas the cytoplasm presents a significant increase of the area. The importance of vitamin maintenance and the increase of the neuronal area is discussed as a possible compensating mechanism to keep the neurotransmitter synthesis

Highlights

The enteric nervous system (ENS) consists of two main plexuses, the myeteric (Auerbach’s) plexus that is located between the longitudinal and circular layers of the muscular layer, and the submucosa (Meissner’s) plexus, located in the tela submucosa[1,2].The main function of the myenteric plexus is the reflexive control of the intestinal motility
control group (CG) was fed NUVILAB® added with 26% of protein, and the experimental group (EG) was fed a diet prepared with 4% of protein through the addition of corn starch and keep the vitamin and mineral balance according to the description by Araujo et al.[25]
Reduction of the body mass was not found in rats that were fed with 8% protein content diets[18]; on the other hand, rats that received diets with less than 5% protein content, to the results found in this study, lost weight[14]

Summary

Introduction

The main function of the myenteric plexus is the reflexive control of the intestinal motility. The myenteric plexus has morphological and functional characteristics that vary according to the different segments of the digestive tube in humans as well as in animals [1,7] , and it can have alterations in several experimental models like diabetes[8,9], Chagas disease[10,11], toxoplasma infection[12,13] and protein malnutrition[14,15,16]. Myenteric neuronal subpopulations like cholinergic neurons[22], positive NADH-diaphorase[19,16] and nitrergic neurons[14,15] are affected by malnutrition

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