Participation of the parasympathetic nervous system in the development of activity-stress ulcers

The present study investigates the effects of truncal vagotomy and drug treatment, comprising atropine methylbromide and chlorisondamine, on the development of activity-stress ulcers in rats. To induce gastric lesions, female rats were housed individually in activity-wheel cages and subjected to a food-restricted schedule of only 1 hr food availability per day. Bilateral truncal vagotomy significantly prevented gastric ulceration, while those rats with vagotomy showed more running activity than sham-operated rats. Daily treatment with either methylatropine (3 and 6 mg/kg, s.c.) or chlorisondamine (2 and 4 mg/kg, i.p.) also significantly decreased the severity of lesions without a significant reduction in running activity. This evidence suggests that the development of activity-stress ulcers is mainly due to the hyperactivity of the peripheral parasympathetic nervous system.