Abstract
Galanin is a neuropeptide widely expressed in central and peripheral nerves and is known to be engaged in neuronal responses to pathological changes. Stomach ulcerations are one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders. Impaired stomach function in peptic ulcer disease suggests changes in autonomic nerve reflexes controlled by the inferior vagal ganglion, resulting in stomach dysfunction. In this paper, changes in the galaninergic response of inferior vagal neurons to gastric ulceration in a pig model of the disease were analyzed based on the authors' previous studies. The study was performed on 24 animals (12 control and 12 experimental). Gastric ulcers were induced by submucosal injections of 40% acetic acid solution into stomach submucosa and bilateral inferior vagal ganglia were collected one week afterwards. The number of galanin-immunoreactive perikarya in each ganglion was counted to determine fold-changes between both groups of animals and Q-PCR was applied to verify the changes in relative expression level of mRNA encoding both galanin and its receptor subtypes: GalR1, GalR2, GalR3. The results revealed a 2.72-fold increase in the number of galanin-immunoreactive perikarya compared with the controls. Q-PCR revealed that all studied genes were expressed in examined ganglia in both groups of animals. Statistical analysis revealed a 4.63-fold increase in galanin and a 1.45-fold increase in GalR3 mRNA as compared with the controls. No differences were observed between the groups for GalR1 or GalR2. The current study confirmed changes in the galaninergic inferior vagal ganglion response to stomach ulcerations and demonstrated, for the first time, the expression of mRNA encoding all galanin receptor subtypes in the porcine inferior vagal ganglia.
Highlights
Galanin (Gal), a 29-amino-acid peptide firstly isolated from the porcine intestine [1], exerts its action on the peripheral tissues through three G protein-coupled transmembrane receptors: GalR1, GalR2 and GalR3
Microscopic analysis of Nodose neurons galaninergic reaction to gastric ulcerations immunostained sections revealed that Gal-immunoreactive perikarya were scattered throughout the ganglia and no characteristic clusters were formed in the control (Fig 2A) or experimental (Fig 2B) animals
Gal-immunoreactive neuronal cell bodies accounted for 0.65 ± 0.11% of all PGP 9.5-positive ganglion perikarya examined in the control animals, while in the experimental pigs this percentage increased to 1.78 ± 0.32% (Figs 2A, 2B and 4; S2 Table)
Summary
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the changes in the number of galanin immunoreactive neurons and to establish the changes in expression of mRNA encoding galanin and all of its receptor subtypes in the nodose ganglia of ulcered animals. This study aimed to verify the galaninergic response of the inferior vagal ganglion perikarya to gastric ulcerations
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