REAPPRAISAL OF THE INNERVATION OF RAT INTESTINE BY VASOACTIVE INTESTINAL POLYPEPTIDE AND NEUROPEPTIDE Y-IMMUNOREACTIVE NEURONS

The occurrence and distribution of neurons and nerve fibres showing vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-like and neuropeptide Y-like immunoreactivity were re-examined in the enteric nervous system of the small and large intestine of the adult rat using dual-labelling indirect immunofluorescence histochemistry to detect the co-existence of these neuropeptides. In the myenteric plexus of both small and large intestine, a population of neuropeptide Y-immunoreactive neurons that did not contain vasoactive intestinal polypeptide was noted; it accounted for 29-53% of neuropeptide Y neurons. Such neurons were also found in the submucosa but there they constituted at most 2% of neuropeptide Y-immunoreactive neurons. In both myenteric and submucous plexuses, regional variations were observed in the number of immunoreactive neurons and in the proportion of dual-labelled neurons. In the myenteric plexus, for example, the density of neurons with immunoreactivity to these two neuropeptides was constant throughout the small intestine, whereas it progressively increased distally within the colon. In addition, a distinct but small subset of immunoreactive myenteric neurons was found to have a novel soma morphology, unclassifiable according to the criteria used for porcine or guinea-pig enteric neurons. Such neurons had one or more conspicuous processes, which were much longer than the short, lamellar somal processes of typical Dogiel Type I neurons; moreover, these protruded from an essentially smooth soma and terminated at distances of up to two cell diameters from their point of origin. Thus, our results suggest that the organization of the enteric nervous system of the rat differs from that of other species and indicate that investigations of the co-localizations of neuropeptides and biologically active mediators in the intestinal tract would be incomplete without reference to regional differences in the incidence and distribution of such neurochemicals.