Data Analysis

Changes in gastric tone and phasic motility in response to microinjection of a drug were compared to a 3 min baseline recording and analyzed using Lab Chart (ADI Instruments, Colorado Springs, CO, United States). Each baseline recording was divided into a 1 min segment, averaged and compared to the drug effect. The baseline gastric tone was defined as the global tone of the stomach, whereas the phasic motility (measured by AUC) was an indicator of the phasic motility of the gastric smooth muscle. Changes in mean BP were also analyzed. The mean BP over a 3 min baseline period was compared to the mean BP following microinjection of a drug.

In experiments where a drug was injected twice (under identical experimental conditions), the two responses were averaged to determine the mean response. Data are reported as mean ± SEM. A one-sample t-test was performed to test if a group’s mean was significant from zero. A paired t-test was performed when animals served as their own controls. An unpaired t-test (independent samples) was performed on data from a separate control and experimental groups. A comparison among three or more different groups was made by a one-way repeated measures ANOVA test followed by a post hoc Newman-Keuls test for specific group comparisons. In all cases, p < 0.05 was the criterion used to denote statistical significance.