Fat-stimulated cholecystokinin release following transplantation of the entire small bowel or of different intestinal segments in rats.

Abstract

This study presents data on the fat-stimulated release of cholecystokinin (CCK) in conscious rats 11 and 84 days after one-stage transplantation of the entire small bowel, or of jejunal, jejunoileal, or ileal segments, under syngeneic and allogenic conditions. After allotransplantation, ciclosporin (CsA) was administered for graft acceptance. The results were compared with those in unoperated controls and in animals that had undergone small-bowel resections leaving jejunal, jejunoileal, or ileal remnants. When the entire small bowel was grafted under syngeneic (92.5 +/- 8.3; 106.6 +/- 7.5) or allogeneic (110.5 +/- 5.5; 101.2 +/- 6.9) conditions, CCK release (pg/ml per 60 min) was similar (P > 0.05) to that of the controls (110.3 +/- 9.0; 94.7 +/- 6.8) at both measurement points. Recipients of jejunal or ileal segmental isografts showed a significantly elevated (P < 0.05) output of CCK (jejunal graft: 176.4 +/- 18.5; 125.5 +/- 10.1 -ileal graft: 55.9 +/- 9.0; 30.1 +/- 5.4) compared with corresponding small-bowel resections (jejunal remnant: 69.0 +/- 7.9; 93.5 +/- 3.9-ileal remnant: 16.7 +/- 3.7; 6.6 +/- 1.3). In contrast, the difference was not significant (P > 0.05) when jejunoileal segments were grafted (jejunoileal graft: 74.4 +/- 19.6; 47.0 +/- 10.4-jejunoileal remnant: 50.7 +/- 11.0; 47.0 +/- 11.9). All recipients of jejunal allografts died between day 8 and day 10 after transplantation, due to functional impairment. Two-stage segmental jejunal allotransplantation, with insertion of the graft into the continuation of the gastrointestinal tract in an accessory, non-functional position after 28 days was successful. Due to this technique, we could gather data on day 84. Recipients of jejunal (118.2 +/- 7.6), jejunoileal (87.1 +/- 19.7; 48.6 +/- 9.3), or ileal (48.1 +/- 6.7; 21.6 +/- 4.6) allografts showed no significant (P < 0.05) differences in CCK output compared with isografts, either on day 11 or on day 84. Our data indicate that transplantation of the entire small bowel affects the fat-stimulated CCK release neither in the early postoperative period nor 3 months after transplantation. In contrast, transplantation of jejunal or ileal segmental isografts caused a significantly elevated output of CCK compared with corresponding resection remnants. Immunosuppression with CsA did not affect CCK release after transplantation, but led to functional impairment with fatal outcome when a short jejunal segment was grafted. This could be prevented by applying the two-stage technique.