Gastric mucus plays an important role in gastric mucosal protection. Apart from its "barrier" function, it has been demonstrated that mucus protects gastric epithelial cells against toxic
oxygen metabolites derived from the
xanthine/
xanthine oxidase system. In this study, we investigated the effect of
malotilate and
sucralfate (mucus production stimulators) and
N-acetylcysteine (
mucolytic agent) on
ischemia/reperfusion-induced gastric mucosal injury. Gastric
ischemia was induced by 30 min clamping of the coeliac artery followed by 30 min of reperfusion. The mucus content was determined by the
Alcian blue method.
Sucralfate (100 mg/kg),
malotilate (100 mg/kg), and
N-acetylcysteine (100 mg/kg) were given orally 30 min before surgery. Both
sucralfate and
malotilate increased the mucus production in control rats. On the other hand, N-acetyloysteine significantly decreased mucus content in control (
sham) group. A significant decrease of mucus content was found in the control and the
N-acetylcysteine pretreated group during the period of
ischemia. On the other hand,
sucralfate and
malotilate prevented the decrease the content of mucus during
ischemia. A similar result can be seen after
ischemia/reperfusion. In the control group and
N-acetylcysteine pretreated group a significant decrease of adherent mucus content was found. However,
sucralfate and
malotilate increased mucus production (
sucralfate significantly).
Sucralfate and
malotilate also significantly protected the gastric mucosa against
ischemia/reperfusion-induced injury. However,
N-acetylcysteine significantly increased gastric mucosal injury after
ischemia/reperfusion. These results suggest that gastric mucus may be involved in the protection of gastric mucosa after
ischemia/reperfusion.