Acute gastric mucosal lesions--a new experimental model and effect of parenteral nutrition

Experiments were performed on 94 male Sprague-Dawley rats to explore the influence of starvation and parenteral nutrition on the development of acute gastric mucosal changes under stress. Comparative assessments were made of lesions in the gastric mucosa of rats on 1- or 6-day repeated exposure to the stress consisting of restraint with immersion in water. Marked hemorrhagic lesions over the extensive area of the glandular stomach and pronounced ulcerative changes in the nonglandular stomach were observed in 6-day stress group as compared to 1-day stress group where only a few hemorrhagic lesions were observed. Thus, this model has proven to provide an excellent experimental model suitable to the purpose of the present investigation. Parenteral nutrition significantly suppressed the development of mucosal damage either in the nonglandular or glandular stomach of rats under 6-day stress. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that lesions caused in the glandular stomach increase in severity via exposure to stress and starvation while those evoked in the nonglandular stomach rise in incidence even in the presence of starvation alone.