1 School of Science and Health 300884 Pharmacology VIRTUAL EXPERIMENT ASSIGNMENT Background and Aim: This virtual experiment is to evaluate selected drugs that can affect the contractility of the guinea pig ileum smooth muscle using the simulated program “Pharmacological Experiments on Isolated Guinea Pig Ileum”. Students will be provided a copy of the simulation program to work at their own pace for this assignment. Students need to click on the file Start.exe in the folder to open the program. The aim of this assignment activity is to provide an opportunity for you to design and perform experiments to (i) investigate the properties of agonist and antagonist drugs using the isolated ileum of the guinea pig, and (ii) investigate the pharmacological effect and mechanism of action of given antagonist drugs (assume as unknown samples) on the contractility of isolated guinea pig ileum. Experimental Setup: The software simulates an experimental setup on an isolated piece (about 2 cm) of guinea pig ileum removed from a freshly killed guinea pig and suspended in warmed and aerated physiological solution called Tyrode’s solution. The tissue is carefully suspended in an organ bath with the bottom end of the tissue fixed and the top end attached to a freely moving isotonic lever which is in turn connected to a transducer. The lever responds to the contractions of the longitudinal muscle in the ileum and the resulting movement is converted into an electrical signal by the transducer. The electrical signals are then sent to a chart recorder which displays the signals as a trace. The organ bath is kept at a constant temperature of 37C by means of a water jacket which circulates water at the required temperature. A variety of drugs are added into the organ bath to observe the effect on
2 intestinal contractility. The set up also allows examining how antagonists can interfere with agonists at tissue level. Experimental Procedure: • When performing experiments in which you are…