Skip to main content
PMC home page
Annals of Surgery logoLink to Annals of Surgery
. 1986 Dec;204(6):698–704. doi: 10.1097/00000658-198612000-00014

N-acetyl-cysteine and prostaglandin. Comparable protection against experimental ethanol injury in the stomach independent of mucus thickness.

J M Henagan, G S Smith, K L Schmidt, T A Miller
PMCID: PMC1251428  PMID: 3789839

Abstract

The role of barrier mucus in mediating the protective effects of 16,16 dimethyl PGE2 (dm PGE2) against ethanol-induced gastric injury, with and without concomitant treatment with N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a potent mucolytic agent, was evaluated. Fasted rats were orally administered either saline, 10 micrograms/kg dm PGE2, 20% NAC, or 10 micrograms/kg dm PGE2 plus 20% NAC. In the first study, the rats were killed 15 minutes later and their stomachs were removed and assayed for barrier mucus adherent to the gastric wall using the Alcian blue technique. In the second study, the rats were orally given 2 mL of absolute ethanol (EtOH) after receiving one of these pretreatment regimens, and 5 minutes later they were killed and their stomachs were evaluated histologically by light microscopy for the magnitude of EtOH injury. Although NAC significantly reduced the thickness of barrier mucus by 76% when compared with control animals, it did not adversely affect the ability of dm PGE2 to spare the deep epithelium from injury by EtOH. In fact, NAC was as effective a protective agent as dm PGE2. Neither agent prevented damage to the surface epithelium by EtOH, verifying previous studies regarding the protective effects of prostaglandins. These results indicate that both dm PGE2 and NAC prevent EtOH-induced damage to the deeper layers of the gastric mucosa independent of mucus gel layer thickness, suggesting that other mechanisms than mucus are involved in mediating this protection.

Full text

PDF
698

Images in this article

700FIG. 3.
on p.700
701FIG. 4.
on p.701
702FIG. 5.
on p.702
703FIG. 6.
on p.703

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allen A., Garner A. Mucus and bicarbonate secretion in the stomach and their possible role in mucosal protection. Gut. 1980 Mar;21(3):249–262. doi: 10.1136/gut.21.3.249. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bickel M., Kauffman G. L., Jr Gastric gel mucus thickness: effect of distention, 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin e2, and carbenoxolone. Gastroenterology. 1981 Apr;80(4):770–775. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bolton J. P., Palmer D., Cohen M. M. Stimulation of mucus and nonparietal cell secretion by the E2 prostaglandins. Am J Dig Dis. 1978 Apr;23(4):359–364. doi: 10.1007/BF01072421. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Guth P. H., Paulsen G., Nagata H. Histologic and microcirculatory changes in alcohol-induced gastric lesions in the rat: effect of prostaglandin cytoprotection. Gastroenterology. 1984 Nov;87(5):1083–1090. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lacy E. R., Ito S. Microscopic analysis of ethanol damage to rat gastric mucosa after treatment with a prostaglandin. Gastroenterology. 1982 Sep;83(3):619–625. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lamont J. T., Ventola A. S., Maull E. A., Szabo S. Cysteamine and prostaglandin F2 beta stimulate rat gastric mucin release. Gastroenterology. 1983 Feb;84(2):306–313. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. McQueen S., Hutton D., Allen A., Garner A. Gastric and duodenal surface mucus gel thickness in rat: effects of prostaglandins and damaging agents. Am J Physiol. 1983 Sep;245(3):G388–G393. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.1983.245.3.G388. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Miller T. A., Li D., Kuo Y. J., Schmidt K. L., Shanbour L. L. Nonprotein sulfhydryl compounds in canine gastric mucosa: effects of PGE2 and ethanol. Am J Physiol. 1985 Jul;249(1 Pt 1):G137–G144. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.1985.249.1.G137. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Miller T. A. Protective effects of prostaglandins against gastric mucosal damage: current knowledge and proposed mechanisms. Am J Physiol. 1983 Nov;245(5 Pt 1):G601–G623. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.1983.245.5.G601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Morris G. P., Harding R. K., Wallace J. L. A functional model for extracellular gastric mucus in the rat. Virchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol. 1984;46(3):239–251. doi: 10.1007/BF02890313. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Parke D. V. Pharmacology of mucus. Br Med Bull. 1978 Jan;34(1):89–94. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a071465. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Robert A., Böttcher W., Golanska E., Kauffman G. L., Jr Lack of correlation between mucus gel thickness and gastric cytoprotection in rats. Gastroenterology. 1984 Apr;86(4):670–674. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Schmidt K. L., Henagan J. M., Smith G. S., Hilburn P. J., Miller T. A. Prostaglandin cytoprotection against ethanol-induced gastric injury in the rat. A histologic and cytologic study. Gastroenterology. 1985 Mar;88(3):649–659. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(85)90132-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Szabo S., Trier J. S., Frankel P. W. Sulfhydryl compounds may mediate gastric cytoprotection. Science. 1981 Oct 9;214(4517):200–202. doi: 10.1126/science.7280691. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wallace J. L., Morris G. P., Krausse E. J., Greaves S. E. Reduction by cytoprotective agents of ethanol-induced damage to the rat gastric mucosa: a correlated morphological and physiological study. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 1982 Dec;60(12):1686–1699. doi: 10.1139/y82-247. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of Surgery are provided here courtesy of Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins

RESOURCES