The number of neurons in the small intestine of mice, guinea-pigs and sheep

Abstract

A histochemical technique was used to stain the myenteric neurons in the intact wall of the small intestine of mice, guinea-pigs and sheep. The length and diameter of the small intestine and the total serosal surface area were also obtained. Myenteric neurons were counted on large whole-mount preparations of the muscularis externa. Counts were carried out also on the submucosal plexus, on a more limited scale. In the mouse a spatial density of 10,600 myenteric neurons per cm2 was found. The small intestine was 33 cm long and measured on average 11.5 mm in circumference, the total outer surface (serosal surface) amounting to about 38.0 cm2. The total number of myenteric neurons in the small intestine was calculated as about 403,000. In the guinea-pig the length of the small intestine was 145 cm, the average circumference 22 mm and the total outer surface area about 319 cm2. The neuronal packing density was 8600/cm2, and the total number of myenteric neurons about 2,750,000. In the sheep the small intestine was about 2100 cm long with an average circumference of 60 mm and a total surface area of about 12,600 cm2. The ganglion neuron density was about 2500/cm2, and the total number of myenteric neurons in the small intestine was calculated as about 31,500,000. Thus, in the sheep the small intestine contained about 11 times as many myenteric neurons as the guinea-pig and about 80 times as many as the mouse. The differences are in the same direction as, but not proportional to, the differences in body weight and in the length of the intestine. The neuronal spatial density was highest in the mouse and lowest in the sheep, and in the sheep the neurons were markedly larger, and gathered in ganglia that were larger and further apart from one another, than in the mouse, while they had intermediate values in the guinea-pig. A new way of expressing neuronal packing densities is presented together with the proposal of an arbitrary but reproducible unit of intestinal length (a segment whose length is equal to its diameter). In the submucosal plexus the neuronal density was about 3000/cm2 in the guinea-pig, about 8700/cm2 in the mouse and about 4500/cm2 in the sheep. In the mouse the submucosal neuron density decreased gradually along the length of the small intestine.