Influence of portal hypertension on secretion of gastric mucus in rats

Objective: To assess the effect of portal hypertension on gastric adherent and soluble mucus in rats. Design: Experimental study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Taiwan. Material: 30 male Wistar rats. Interventions: Portal hypertension was induced experimentally by partial li gation of the portal vein in 20 male Wistar rats: ten rats were examined af ter 4 weeks and the remaining 10 after 8. Another group of 10 rats (control s) had sham operations. Main outcome measures: Portal pressure, the severity of gross gastric mucos al lesions, and measurement of gastric adherent and soluble mucus. Results: The portal pressure and the gross mucosal damage differed signific antly between the experimental and the control groups (p < 0.01). There was significantly less gastric adherent mucus in the two experimental groups t han in the central group (p = 0.002 and <0.001, respectively), whereas ther e was no significant differences in the amount of gastric soluble mucus (p = 0.5 and 0.1,respectively). The reduction in the gastric adherent mucus wa s closely related to the increase in portal pressure (p < 0.001) and the se verity of portal hypertension-induced gastropathy (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Gastric adherent mucus may have an important role in the patho genesis of portal hypertensive gastropathy, and its protective capacity is reduced by portal hypertension, as indicated by the decrease in gastric adh erent mucus.