Нейрохимические особенности нейропептид-Y-ергических энтеральных нейронов подслизистого сплетения тонкой кишки в постнатальном онтогенезе

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) plays an important role in the nervous system, including the regulation of vascular tone and gastrointestinal secretion, has a direct inhibitory effect on intestinal motility and secretion. Colocalization of NPY with the enzyme for the synthesis of acetylcholine - choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), neuronal NO synthase (nNOS), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and calcium-binding protein calbindin (CB) was detected in the neurons of the submucous plexus of the small intestine of rats from the moment of birth until old age using immunohistochemical method of double labeling with antibodies and fluorescence microscopy. From the moment of birth, all NPY-immunoreactive neurons colocalize ChAT. Most of NPY-containing neurons also contain VIP and CB. In aged rats, the percentage of NPY-immunoreactive neurons containing CB, VIP, and ChAT decreases. In young rats from newborns to 20-day-old as well as in aged rats, nNOS is detected in NPY-positive neurons. Thus, at the early stages of ontogenesis and in the senescence, the enteric metasympathetic NPY-immunoreactive submucous neurons contain a wider range of neurotransmitters when compared to adult animals.