NADH-DIAPHORASE POSITIVE MYENTERIC NEURONS OF THE AGLANDULAR REGION OF THE STOMACH OF RATS (Rattus norvegicus) SUBJECTED TO DESNUTRITION

the stomach carried out movements characterized by potent peristaltic slow waves which serve mixture, mechanical digestion and slow emptying through the pylorus. the control of this movement is made by hormone action and neural activity, especially the intrinsic innervation by the neurons of the myenteric plexus. once the condition of desnutrition can cause morphological alterations even upon the neurons this work was proposed with the purpose of verifying the effects of protein desnutrition lasting 120 days on the quantitative aspects of the nadh-diaphorase positive neurons. it was used 10 adult rats aging 90 days, which were divided in two groups, control and disnurtured. the rats of the disnurtured group (n=5) were subjected to a diet of 8% protein level, and those of the control group (n=5) received chow with normal protein level (22%). after 120 days, the aglandular stomach was subjetec to the histoenzymologic technique of the nadh-diaphorase for neuronal evidenciation. the aglandular regions was divided in a region near the major gastric curvature and a region anterior to the limitant ridge. according to the sampling method of counting, the observed neurons in 40 microscopic fields (6.64 mm2) of each region in all the animals of the two groups were counted using light microscope with 40x objective. we verified that the neurons can be isolated or grouped into ganglia. next to the limitant ridge it was found a mean of 570.8 neurons in the control group and 718.4 in the disnurtured group. on the other hand, next to the major gastric curvature, we observed 25.8 neurons in the control group and 52.6 neurons in the disnurtured group. the low-protein diet resulted in less body growth with a weight decrease of about 30.33% when compared to the control animals, as well as a decrease in the area of the stomach of 20.13%. we concluded that the neurons are not uniformly distributed in the stomach wall and that the disnurtured animals showed less neuronal dispersion, thus