Differential effect of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the innervation of the ileum and distal colon.

The effect of short-term and long-term streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the pattern of distribution and tissue content of adrenergic and peptidergic nerves in ileum and distal (descending) colon of the rat was examined using immunohistochemical, biochemical, and immunochemical techniques. The effect of short-term streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the level of noradrenaline compared with weight-restricted (starved) and untreated controls in the celiac (celiac-superior mesenteric ganglia complex) and inferior mesenteric ganglia, which supply the two regions of the intestine, was also compared. The pattern of change in the distribution of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase-, substance P-, calcitonin gene-related peptide-, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-like immunoreactive nerve fibres that was observed in the ileum from diabetic rats was not evident in the myenteric plexus of distal colon. In contrast to the ileum, there was no evidence of degenerative change in any of the nerve types investigated in the myenteric plexus of the distal colon. The level of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in the diabetic rat ileum was significantly increased, whereas the level of noradrenaline was reduced; no such changes were observed in the distal colon. The tissue content of noradrenaline in the celiac ganglion, which projects to the ileum, was increased at 8-week diabetes compared with both weight-restricted and untreated controls, whereas the diabetic state had no effect on the levels of noradrenaline of the inferior mesenteric ganglion, which projects to the distal colon. It is concluded that there is a differential effect of streptozotocin-diabetes on different regions of the rat intestine. The adrenergic and peptidergic innervation of the distal colon were changed little compared with ileum. This may be explainable in terms of the different functional roles of these two regions of the intestine and/or by the difference in origin of the sympathetic nerves supplying the two regions of the intestine.