Parietal Cell Vagotomy in Dogs

The aim of this work was to further investigate whether it is possible, through parietal cell vagotomy (PCV), to obtain both a complete suppression of the gastric secretory response to vagal impulses and to retain a normal contractile response of the antral muscle. Acid and peptic secretions, the electrical activity and the force of circular antral contractions were simultaneously studied in dogs, before and after PCV, under 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) and pentagastrin (PG) stimulation. After PCV, the response to 200 mg/kg 2DG was reduced by about 70% for acid and 80% for pepsin; the slopes of the dose-response curves were significantly reduced after PCV. The slope of the regression line pepsin/acid after 2DG was decreased following PCV. The mean acid response to PG was reduced about 50% after PCV. Plasma immunoreactive gastrin increased following 2DG, and the variations were identical before and after PCV. The gastric control electrical activity in basal conditions (fasted dogs) and following 2DG was similar before and after PCV. The antral contractile response to 2DG was reduced by about 40% after PCV. In conclusion, when PCV induced an 80% reduction in the gastric secretory response to maximal vagal stimulation by 2DG, the contractile antral response was not entirely normal. This effect might be due either to a partial antral denervation or to some intrinsic influence of the denervated gastric body upon the strength of antral contractions.