[Changes in mucosal superoxide dismutase activities of gastric lesions]

The mucosal superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were serially examined on the acute gastric mucosal lesion (AGML) induced by water-immersion restraint stress to rats for six hours. The mucosal SOD activities gradually increased in proportion to the time up to 3 hours after the restraint stress. But it decreased 6 hours after when severe damage had been established in the mucosa. On the other hand, the mucosal SOD activities of the margins of human gastric ulcer showed to be higher on the healing stage than on the active stage. And the SOD activities of the intractable ulcer were lower than those of the curable ulcer. These results indicate that the mucosal SOD may play some important roles both on the protecting process information of AGML and on the healing process in gastric ulcer.