Kim, Chul;Choi, Hyun;Kim, Chung-Chin;Kim, Jong-Kyu;Kim, Myung-Suk;Park, Hyoung-Jin;Jo, Yang-Hyeok
1
This study was under taken to investigate the influences of predictable or unpredictable stress upon gastric ulceration, and the hippocampectomy upon the ulceration order the stressful conditions. Sixty male albino rats(Sprague-Dawley strain) were divided equally into 3 groups: One was the hippocampal group(N=20) which received hippocampal ablation by suction, another was the cortical control group(N =20) which received partial cortical ablation over the hippocampus, and a third was the normal control group(N=20). Each group was further divided into two subgroups: One was the predicted subgroup(N=10) in which animals could predict the imminent stressful stimuli by hearing a sound(1,000 Hz, 2 sec in duration) 3 sec before the onset of the stress, and the other was the unpredicted subgroup(N=10). After starvation for 24 hours, but water ad libitum, each rat received the electric stimulation(3 mA, 60 Hz, 2 sec in duration, and once per minute in average) for 6 hours via a pair of electrodes attached on the tale. The electric stimulation served as the stress causing the gastric ulcer. Five hours after completion of stimulation, the stomach filled with the physiological saline was removed under deep anesthesia and spread out on a small glass plate. The numbers of the ulcer in each stomach were counted and the shape was examined under the dissecting microscope. Results obtained were as follows: 1. The mean numbers of the ulcer of the predicted subgroups were significantly larger than those of the unpredicted subgroups in the normal control and the cortical control groups, but there was no difference between the values of the two subgroups in the hippocampal group. 2. The mean numbers of the ulcer of the predicted subgroups in the normal control and the cortical control groups were larger(but not significant) than that in the hippocampal group. It is inferred from the above results that the prediction of the stress strengthens the effect of the stress on the gastric ulceration, and the hippocampus facilitates the effect of the prediction of the stress.