A new model of stress ulcer in the rat with pylorus ligation and its pathogenesis.

Water-immersion stress for 7, 14, or 20 hr consistently induced linear or punctate stress ulcers (mucosal erosions) in the corpus of the stomach in intact rats. When the pylorus of the stomach had been ligated prior to stressing, the stress ulcers changed their morphological feature (mainly punctate and in one place elongated) and location (both in corpus and antrum). Histologically, the stress ulcer developed in the proximal antrum of pylorus ligated rats and penetrated into the muscularis mucosa. Sodium bicarbonate, chlorpromazine, hexamethonium, atropine, metiamide, and bilateral vagotomy markedly inhibited the stress ulcers which developed in the pylorus-ligated rats. Phentolamine and propranolol hardly affected the development of stress ulcers. Amylopectine evoked a new type of stress ulcer in the corpus when it was given to the pylorus-ligated rats.