Morphometric and quantitative study of the myenteric neurons of the stomach of malnourished aging rats.

In this work, two groups of Wistar rats were fed ad libitum, one with standard chow (22% protein) and the other with hypoproteic chow (8% protein), from the 210th to the 345th day of life. Compared to the animals fed with standard chow, the animals fed with hypoproteic chow exhibited hypophagia (ingestion about 30% lower), mean weight gain 4.46% lower, greater amount of retroperitoneal and peri-epididymal fat (19% on average), lower Lee index, decrease of total plasma proteins and plasma globulins and maintenance of plasma albumin. The quantitative and morphometric analysis of the NADH-diaphorase positive myenteric neurons yielded a larger number of small neurons and a smaller number of medium neurons in the animals subjected to the hypoproteic chow, demonstrating that the neuronal growth was affected by the diet. In the animals fed with hypoproteic chow, a 20% decrease in the NADH-diaphorase positive neurons of the forestomach and a 10% decrease in those of the glandular stomach were observed.