Restraint ulcer: history, current research and future implications

A relatively new ulcerogenic procedure, supine restraint-cold, is described. This procedure is simple, effective andproduced a reliably high incidence of gastric glandular lesions in a variety of animal species. In some cases, these lesions penetrate the muscularis mucosa and as such may be called ulcers. They are responsive to known therapeutic agents (cimetidine, aluminum hydroxide). Drugs which modify autonomic activity (scopolamine, carbachol) affect the extent of supine restraint-cold induced gastric lesions. Animals which differ in open-field behaviors indicative of emotionality, show marked differences in gastric lesions induced by this procedure. It is suggested that the supine restraint-cold procedure meets the established criteria for a useful experimental ulcer model [25] and thus represents a viable research tool.