Reinnervation of transplanted vas deferens by cholinergic nerves normally supplying skeletal muscle

Abstract

The rat vas deferens was removed and either transplanted alongside the soleus muscle or into the bed of the soleus muscle that had previously been removed, and in this case the soleus nerve was connected to the transplant. The vas deferens reinnervated by the somatomotor nerve recovered the best. Contractions to transmural electrical stimulation could not be elicited from the denervated vas deferens, although noradrenaline and acetylcholine elicited contractions. The reinnervated vas deferens produced good contractile responses to transmural stimulation, and these were substantially reduced by a cholinergic muscarinic blocking agent, hyoscine, as compared to only a small reduction in the control vas deferens. Neostigmine potentiated the contraction of the transplanted vas deferens to a greater extent than that of the control. This indicated that a substantial component of the contractile response was produced by cholinergic fibres. Consistent with this was the finding that, while guanethidine blocked a greater proportion of the contraction in the control vas deferens, the contraction of the reinnervated transplant was less affected. Acetylcholine elicited a strong contraction in control vas deferens, but only a small response was obtained in the reinnervated transplant. However, the response to noradrenaline was greater in the transplant than in the control vas deferens. These results indicate that cholinergic nerves normally supplying skeletal muscle can reinnervate smooth muscle and that the alien somatomotor innervation altered the responsiveness of the smooth muscle of the vas deferens. Morphological studies confirm the shift from adrenergic to cholinergic fibres in the reinnervated vas deferens.