Sex differences in gastric mucosal protection after 16, 16-dimethyl PGE2 and lithium chloride

While the incidence of duodenal ulcer disease has been documented to be greater in men than in women, this observation has not been previously noted in animal studies of the upper gastrointestinal tract. In this study, we questioned whether the cytoprotective properties of 16, 16-dimethyl PGE2 were sex-related by comparing the degree of ethanol-induced hemorrhagic gastritis in male and female rats pretreated with 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 or lithium chloride. Animals receiving 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 or lithium chloride had significantly less ethanol-induced hemorrhagic gastritis (1.17 +/- 0.15 and 1.24 +/- 0.13, respectively, p less than 0.001) when compared with controls (2.69 +/- 0.10). Female rats treated with 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 had 59% less hemorrhagic gastritis than male rats treated similarly (0.76 +/- 0.14 vs 1.86 +/- 0.19 respectively, p less than 0.001). This sex-related difference in hemorrhagic gastritis was not noted in male and female rats receiving lithium chloride (1.24 +/- 0.15 vs 1.23 +/- 0.27, respectively). However, female rats treated with 16, 16-dimethyl PGE2 had significantly less hemorrhagic gastritis when compared with female rats receiving lithium chloride (0.76 +/- 0.14 vs 1.24 +/- 0.15 respectively, p less than 0.05).