ABDOMINAL VAGAL SYSTEM IN RATS - AN ANATOMICAL STUDY WITH EMPHASIS UPON DISTRIBUTION OF GASTRIC VAGI TO STOMACH

The findings of the gross anatomical dissections indicate that the abdominal vagal system in rats is similar to that in dogs and man: 2 trunks (one anterior and one posterior) and 4 truncal divisions (hepatic, celiac, and anterior and posterior gastric divisions). The findings with neutral red indicate that the distribution of the gastric vagi to the stomach in rats is the same as that in dogs: a segmental distribution in which the anterior and posterior gastric divisions innervate the anterior and posterior walls of the stomach, respectively, and the terminal branches from the anterior and posterior gastric divisions innervate separate segments of the anterior and posterior walls of the stomach. These anatomical similarities in rats, dogs, and man lend further support to the use of rats as acceptable experimental animals for studies of the vagal phase of gastric secretion. © 1969.