Crude cholera enterotoxin introduced into the duodenum, either ligated or non-ligated, of the anesthetized rabbit caused marked release of the basal granules in the enterochromaffin (EC) cells. The degranulation was recognized in the tissue fixed as soon as 15min after administration of the toxin and was still seen in 4hr specimens. Enlarged granules of conspicuously lowered electron density opened at the basal and lateral cell surface.A hypothesis was presented that the EC cells are stimulated by cholera enterotoxin at their apical microvilli projecting into the intestinal lumen and they release their products, serotonin and an unidentified polypeptide hormone, which, as “diarrheagenic messengers, ” cause intestinal hypersecretion characteristic of cholera intoxication.
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Fujita et al. (1974) studied this question.