Chronic nicotine treatment intensifies gastric ulceration by cold-restraint stress in rats

Nicotine 5, 25 or 50 micrograms/ml drinking water given ad lib for 5, 10 or 20 days, dose- and time-dependently worsened cold-restraint-induced (stress) ulceration in rat stomachs. Treatment with nicotine 5 or 25 micrograms/ml did not influence the number of gastric mucosal mast cells degranulated by cold and restraint; however, drinking 50 micrograms/ml for 10 days lowered further the mast cell count in stressed animals. During 20-day nicotine administration, the daily food intake and body weight gain, up to the 18th day when the animals were starved before experiments, were not affected by the three concentrations of the alkaloid, except that fluid consumption tended to be less only in those animals given the highest dose. The findings indicate that chronic nicotine treatment exacerbates the severity of stress-evoked ulcer formation. The ulcer-intensifying mechanism of the two lower doses of nicotine appears not to be related to additional mast cell degranulation; only the ulcerogenic action of the highest concentration includes this factor. It is unlikely that ulcer aggravation by nicotine is due to malnutrition because body weight gain and solid food intake by the alkaloid-treated rats were normal.