Morphological and Functional Changes in the Stomach of Rats with Experimentally Induced Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis represents a systemic disorder characterised by acute inflammatory changes in pancreatic tissue, by the multiple organ dysfunction and systemic inflammatory response syndrome.

The investigation of the impact of the acute pancreatitis on morphological and functional changes in stomach of L-arginine treated rats.

Adult male Wistar rats, weighing 200–250 g, were divided into two groups of 6 animals (control and experimental). The acute pancreatitis was caused by an intraperitoneal injection of L-arginine at a dose of 350 mg/100 g body mass. The animals were sacrificed 24h after the application. The gastric tissue samples were collected for a pathohistological and functional analysis and further processed. The pathohistological changes of gastric mucosa were analyzed under an optical microscope. The functional analysis implied the in vitro examination of contractibility of isolated rat gastric fundus samples.

Hystopathological analysis revealed the presence of gastric edema in the group of rats with pancreatitis, and an increased inflammatory response and consequently the presence of necrotizing lesions in some parts of the preparation. In this group of animals, there was also an increase in the intensity and number of spontaneous contractions over the 5 minute period. Acetyl-choline-induced contractions showed a decrease in the intensity and time required to reach the maximum contraction strength in treated animals.

Acute pancreatitis induced by high-dose L-arginine administration has been shown to lead to significant morphological changes in the rat gastric mucosa in the form of inflammatory response, edema and necrotic lesions. Functional changes have also been observed in the form of enhanced motility of the gastric fundus muscle in a group with treated rats. These results suggest an association between enhanced gastrointestinal muscle motility and an experimentally induced pancreatic disorder and also, the potentially toxic effects of L-arginine when administered at high dose.