Gastric Mucosal Resistance to a Repeated Ethanol Insult

Abstract

The luminal gastric mucosa of anesthetised rats was uniformly exposed to 70% ethanol for 30–45 seconds. Ninety-six per cent of the superficial epithelium was immediately destroyed. The mucosa was allowed to heal for 60 minutes, during which time 85% of the superficial mucosa had re-epithelialised. A thick gelatinous layer of necrotic cells and mucosal exudate formed over the restituted epithelium. To determine whether the mucosa could withstand a second ethanol insult, the same stomachs were re-exposed to 70% ethanol for 30–45 seconds and fixed for quantitative light microscopy. Significant damage to the newly formed epithelium was observed only when the gelatinous layer was first removed and then followed by a second ethanol insult. This resulted in uniform superficial damage to 92% of the mucosal surface with accompanying vascular stasis.