Spontaneous stomach ulcer in genetically mast-cell depleted W/Wv mice

Histamine has been implicated in the pathogenesis of gastroduodenal ulcers. Since mast cells contain a considerable amount of histamine as well as heparin and other biologically active substances, it seems reasonable to speculate that they are involved in this process. In fact, development of gastroduodenal ulcers was reported in dogs with mastocytoma, and an increase in mast-cell number was described in the vicinity of human gastroduodenal ulcers. Y.K. et al. have recently found that the number of mast cells in a unit length of the skin of W/Wv mutant mice is less than 1% of the value for the congeneic +/+ mice and that no mast cells are detected in the intestinal canal of W/Wv mice. Therefore, this mutant mouse was used to investigate the role of mast cells in the induction of gastroduodenal ulcers. As a preliminary experiment, we examined the stomach and duodenum of W/Wv mice without any treatments. Unexpectedly, we found the spontaneous development of perforating stomach ulcers in W/Wv mice, suggesting that mast cells do not necessarily have aggravating effects on the production of stomach ulcers.