Intestinal fluid transport in the small intestine of normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats: the importance of enteric nerves, chloride and bicarbonate secretion.

Fluid transport was studied in periarterially denervated jejunal segments of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) of the Okamoto strain and as a control also in Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKR). In agreement with the findings of an earlier report a 'spontaneous' fluid secretion was observed in SHR whereas the intestinal segments of WKR absorbed fluid. The fluid secretion in SHR was inhibited by tetrodotoxin or lidocaine placed on the serosal surface of the intestinal segment under study. These observations confirm our earlier proposal that secretory nervous pathways in the enteric nervous system evoke the fluid secretion in SHR. In an attempt to analyse the cellular mechanisms that underlie the fluid secretion in SHR the animals were given loop diuretics in doses that evoked diuresis. No effect on intestinal fluid transport was seen in SHR or WKR. Furthermore, to study the importance of bicarbonate transport alkaline secretion was monitored with a pH-stat technique. In the initial part of the experiments the alkaline secretion in SHR and WKR was similar. In half of the SHR experiments alkaline secretion increased with time. This increase could be completely reversed with hexamethonium and atropine (only tested in three experiments). The time course of the alkaline and fluid secretion in SHR did not coincide, indicating that bicarbonate ion transport was not the major cause of fluid secretion in SHR. In agreement with this conclusion it was observed that acetazolamide (a blocker of carbonic anhydrase) did not influence rate of fluid transport in SHR or WKR.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)