Background/aims: An increased incidence in gallstone disease has been suggested in patients subjected to vagotomy, therefore we studied whether vagotomy influences the gallbladder epithelium and the secretion of glucoprotein granules in mice fed a gallstone-inducing diet.
Methodology: Ten mice were given a lithogenic diet for 7 weeks. Five of them were subjected to left truncal vagotomy. As controls, 5 mice were sham-operated and 5 were subjected to vagotomy. Seven weeks after the operation, the morphological changes in the gallbladder epithelium were quantified with an electron microscopic morphometric method.
Results: In mice on a lithogenic diet, an increase in the volume density of the secretory granules and the profile area of the principal cells of the epithelium were found. The morphological changes were identical in animals subjected to truncal vagotomy and given a lithogenic diet.
Conclusions: The effect of a gallstone-promoting diet in mice, seen as an increase in the volume density of the secretory granules and in the profile area of the principal cells of the gallbladder epithelium, was not influenced by deprivation of vagal innervation.