Sequential ultrastructural study of mucosal innervation following parietal cell vagotomy and antrectomy.

Rats having undergone parietal cell vagotomy (PCV) or PCV with antrectomy were sacrificed and gastric mucosal samples studies by electron microscopy. Degeneration of axons was followed by the appearance of small, neurotubule-rich axons which increased in size and number with increasing postoperative interval. The source of these regenerating fibers is unknown but may have come from the fundus.