[Effects of centrally administered NPY on stress induced gastric ulcers in the rat]

We investigated the central effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) on stress-induced gastric ulcers in water immersion rats. Intracisternally administered NPY dose-dependently aggravated, but intravenously administered NPY did not affect stress ulcers in rats. Intraperitoneal pre-treatment of atropine completely blocked the central effect of NPY, but neither pyrilamine nor cimetidine affected. Intracisternal administration of NPY aggravated stress ulcers not through histamine mediated mechanism but by parasympathetic pathway. It is suggested that centrally administered NPY acted by the inhibition on gastric motility and by the suppression on gastric mucosal blood flow rather than by the stimulation on gastric secretion in rats.