Protection of the rat gastric mucosa against aspirin injury by arachidonic acid: a dietary prostaglandin precursor fatty acid.
We studied aspirin-induced injury to the gastric mucosa in control rats pretreated with a solubilizer, pluronic F-68 (PL), and in rats pretreated with solubilized arachidonic acid (AA). Fasted male rats were pretreated intragastrically with 1 ml of either pluronic or AA and 1 h later acidified ASA (1 ml suspension of 200 mg kg-1 body weight) was administered intragastrically. Grossly apparent mucosal lesions developed 1 h after aspirin in pluronic-pretreated rats, but were significantly reduced in AA-pretreated rats. Histology, scanning and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that AA pretreatment did not prevent aspirin-induced initial damage to the surface epithelium but did significantly reduce extent of aspirin-induced deep mucosal necrosis at 1, 4 and 18 h after aspirin. Initial aspirin-induced surface epithelial damage was rapidly restituted by two distinct types of re-epithelialization - vertical and horizontal. While the vertical type of re-epithelialization has been reported previously as the first stage of mucosal repair following injury by various noxious agents such as concentrated ethanol, the horizontal type of re-epithelialization, which is described for the first time in this paper, seems to be specific for the repair of aspirin-induced gastric mucosal injury. These studies suggest that dietary factors such as essential fatty acids may play a role in gastric mucosal protection against aspirin injury.
Tarnawski
A
A
Department of Medicine, VA Medical Center, Long Beach, CA 90822.
Hollander
D
D
Stachura
J
J
Krause
W J
WJ
Gergely
H
H
D000818:Animals; D001095:Arachidonic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001241:Aspirin / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000187:drug effects*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011199:Potentiometry; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D014022:Tissue Survival / Q000187:drug effects
D001095:Arachidonic Acids; D001241:Aspirin