Gastrointestinal myoelectric activity in conscious guinea pigs.

Abstract

Myoelectric activity was recorded from the gastric antrum and small intestine of conscious, unrestrained guinea pigs using bipolar Ag-Ag chloride electrodes that had been previously implanted under pentobarbital sodium/Innovar anesthesia. In fasted guinea pigs, the migrating myoelectric complex (MMC) was recorded from the small intestine and was observed to propagate aborally at a speed that declined with distance from the pylorus (range of speeds of the front of phase 3: 17.5 cm/min in the duodenum to 4.1 cm/min in the ileum). The complex was not disrupted by feeding but occurred less frequently in the freely fed state (82-min cycle period in the fasted state versus 139 min in the fed state..