Occurrence and characteristics of the migrating myoelectric complex in ovine gallbladder and its relationships to the small intestinal motility

An attempt has been made to identify the migrating motility complex in the ovine gallbladder and to span it with the small-intestinal pattern. For this purpose, four rams underwent surgical implantation of bipolar electrodes into the abomasal antrum, entire small bowel and gallbladder infundibulum, corpus and fundus. The strain gauge force transducer was also mounted in the gallbladder fundus, near the electrode. In the course of chronic experiments, the myoelectrical and motor activity was recorded in fasted and non-fasted rams, with or without feeding. Cyclic myoelectrical and motor activity pattern was found in the gallbladder. It resembled the migrating myoelectric complex present in the small bowel. The gallbladder pattern was well correlated with the intestinal migrating complex. Three or four phases of this pattern could be identified in all gallbladder regions. The most characteristic phase 3-like activity was longer and more intense in the gallbladder fundus as compared with the upper gallbladder regions. In both the small bowel and gallbladder, motility alterations caused by various feeding conditions were comparable. Therefore, the migrating motility complex occurs in the ovine gallbladder, albeit its putative role can be different from that in the small bowel, at least in part.