The effect of motilin on the gastrointestinal propulsion in rats.

We studied the gastrointestinal propulsion in unanaesthetized rats by 51Cr method that permits the simultaneous determination of two functions of the gastric emptying and the intestinal propulsion. The results obtained are as follows: 1) The semi-logarithmic presentation of the gastric emptying showed a linear relationship with the time. 2) When synthetic motilin was subcutaneously injected at the dose of 1 microgram/kg, the gastric emptying was promoted to a statistically significant extent.