The influence of ranitidine bismuth citrate on rat gastric mucosal microcirculation and adherent mucus gel layer

Abstract

Ranitidine Bismuth Citrate (RBC), recently developed to
fight H. pylori, exhibits a triple action: anti-bacterial, antisecretive
and mucosal-protective. Since less research has
focused upon its mucosal protective action, we decided to
study two parameters concerning that topic, i.e. the gastric
mucosal blood flow and the adherent mucus gel thickness.
Twenty rats were treated by gavage with either 25mg/kg RBC
or equal volume (1ml) of drinking water; 60 min later,
laparotomy was performed, the stomach opened along the
greater curvature and gastric mucosal blood flow assessed
by laser-Doppler flowmetry. After this measurement, five -
20mm long- fullthickness strips were sectioned from the
stomach, mounted transversely on glass plates and viewed
under a light microscopy using an eyepiece graticule (4
measurements/strip). Rats treated with RBC were found to
exhibit a statistically significant increase in gastric mucosal
blood flow (36.2916.64 vs 88.9912.23 relative units
of flow, p=0.001) as well as in adherent mucus gel thickness
(69.3021.7 vs 222.3947.71m, p=0.0001). It is thus
concluded that the ability of RBC to increase gastric mucosal
blood flow and adherent mucus gel thickness may
contribute to the protective action of this compound.
Key words: gastric mucosal blood flow, adherent mucus, ranitidine
bismuth citrate, H. pylori