Regulation of gastric motility by ethanol is in part associated with cyclic nucleotide pathway

Abstract

To investigate the underlying mechanism of ethanol in gastric smooth muscle relaxation, we examined the effect of ethanol on gastric motility and cyclic nucleotide pathway. Ethanol dose-dependently inhibited amplitude and frequency of spontaneous phasic contraction of cat gastric smooth muscle, whereas elicited tonic contraction at concentrations of more than 0.5%. Both spontaneous phasic contraction and 2% ethanol-induced tonic contraction were significantly inhibited by forskolin and sodium nitroprusside. Ethanol dose-dependently inhibited basal cyclic AMP levels and forskolin-induced cyclic AMP formation. On the other hand, ethanol significantly increased the basal cyclic GMP levels and sodium nitroprusside-induced cyclic GMP formation at low concentrations of less than 0.25%. However, ethanol at concentrations of more than 1% significantly inhibited sodium nitroprusside-induced cyclic GMP levels. These results suggest that regulation of gastric motility by ethanol is in part mediated via cyclic nucleotide pathway.