Regional specialisations of innervation and musculature of the rat stomach

Abstract

The region of the gastric lesser curvature is reported to differ from other parts of the stomach in lacking rhythmic muscle movement in its proximal part, by fewer enteric nerve cells being present and by differences in distributions of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC). Because detailed documentation of differences is lacking, we made a thorough investigation of the lesser curvature region. A substantial part of the lesser curvature region had a sparse ganglionated myenteric plexus (about 25% of the density of occurrence of ganglia in other regions). This overlapped with an area lacking longitudinal muscle, in which the enteric ganglia were serosal, at the circular muscle surface. The seros..