Js. Hsieh et Tj. Huang, THE EFFECT OF PORTAL-HYPERTENSION ON GASTRIC EPITHELIAL PROLIFERATIONIN RATS, European surgical research, 25(2), 1993, pp. 98-103
We investigated the effect of portal hypertension over time on gastric
epithelial proliferation in rats. Portal-vein, ligation (PVL) was app
lied to fourteen Wistar rats to produce experimental portal hypertensi
on: seven rats (PVL2) had histological analysis after 2 months and the
remaining seven (PVL4) after 4. An additional group of seven was empl
oyed as a control. Each rat was injected with bromodeoxyuridine and ki
lled an hour later to assess gastric epithelial proliferation by an im
munohistochemical staining technique. The labeling index between PVL a
nd control animals differed significantly (p < 0.05). Labeling indices
in fundic mucosa were 5.7 +/- 0.2% in controls, 3.9 +/- 0.3 % in PVL2
rats and 4.0 +/- 0.3 % in PVL4 rats, while in antral mucosa the corre
sponding figures were 7.5 +/- 0. 6, 4.6 +/- 0.3 and 4.0 +/- 0.3 %. In
neither fundic nor antral mucosa was the total mucosal thickness signi
ficantly different between the control and PVL rats. In the PVL2 group
, the frequency distribution of labeled cells showed a shift toward th
e mucosal surface in fundic glands. No significant differences between
the two PVL groups were observed in any of the studied parameters. Th
is study suggests that portal hypertension may inhibit gastric epithel
ial proliferation in rats.