title: Intragastric nicotine protects against 40% ethanol-induced gastric injury despite pretreatment with NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester or adrenal medullectomy in rats.
abstract: We tested the hypotheses that the protective effect of intragastric nicotine against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury is dependent on endogenous nitric oxide or peripheral sympathoadrenal mechanisms. Rats were pretreated with NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (3 mg/kg subcutaneous, 1 h prior to study) to block endogenous nitric oxide synthesis or with adrenal medullectomy (three weeks prior to study) to ablate the effect of the adrenal medulla. At 1-h intervals, vehicle or nicotine (4 mg/kg) and 40% ethanol were then given intragastrically. The total lengths of the linear gastric corpus mucosal lesions were measured unbiasedly. The protective effect of intragastric nicotine was not modified by either pretreatment. We conclude that the mechanism mediating intragastric nicotine protection against 40% ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury is independent of endogenous nitric oxide or the adrenal medulla.
authors.affiliation: Research Service, Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center, Los Angeles, California 91343.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Endoh
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000313:Adrenal Medulla / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D000431:Ethanol / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide; D000431:Ethanol; D009538:Nicotine; D001120:Arginine; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester