Inflammation impairs neurally mediated responses to electrical field stimulation in isolated strips of human gallbladder muscle.

Strips from human gallbladder removed at surgery were exposed to cholecystokinin octopeptide CCK-OP 15 nM and were subjected to electrical field stimulation (EFS) in vitro using parameters for selective stimulation of nerves (5- to 10-sec trains of 0.3-msec pulses at 10 Hz). An adjacent strip from the same specimen was processed for histological examination. These preparations were given a numerical score for inflammatory change. The strength of contraction in response to CCK-OP was inversely related to the severity of inflammation. Gallbladders with no response to EFS had a higher inflammation score (median 11, range 5-16) than those with a response (median 7, range 3-12). We conclude that inflammatory changes in human gallbladder impair responses to neural and hormonal stimulation, but we are unable to determine unequivocally in this study whether this is a result of damage to nerves or muscle cells. However, the observation that some strips were able to contract in response to CCK-OP but not to neural stimulation suggests the possibility of neural damage in gallbladder inflammation.