Actions of L-citrulline on gastric mucus secretion and gastric mucous cell counts in albino rats

Abstract

Oral L-citrulline is efficiently converted to L-arginine, the precursor for endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthesis.Nitric oxide NO enhances gastric mucus production. This study investigates the role of nitric oxide as up regulator of mucus secretion and mucous cell count in the stomach. Sixty Adult male albino rats, weighing between 180-210 g were used for the experiment. They were divided into two study groups, (gastric mucus secretion study group, gastric mucus cell count study group), of thirty rats per group and each group was further subdivided into five groups with six (n=6) rats in each group. Group (I) served as control. Group (II) was treated with L-Citrulline (600mg/kg) for five days. Group (III) received L-Citrulline (900mg/kg) for five days. Group (IV) received L-Arginine (200mg/kg) and group (V) was treated with misoprostol (100µg/kg). Gastric mucus wall content was determined by Alcian blue method and the rate of secretion was determined by the quantity of Alcian blue extract per gram wet stomach(mg/g). The tissues were fixed in 10% formalin and embedded in Paraffin wax, then sectioned with microtome at 4microns. The mucus cell count was counted using calibrated microscope in five randomly selected areas of the gastric mucosal tissue on each slide. The results show that in the first study group, L-citrulline increases the rate of gastric mucus secretion from 7.4±1.58mg/g tissue in the control to12.7±5.05mg/g tissue in the 600mg/kg treated in group 2,while group 4 treated with L- arginine the secretion is about 11.30±2.64mg/g per tissue while in the second study group, the mucus cell count in the control is 14.50±2.56 cells/mm 2 and it decreases to 10.75±1.80 and 14.20±3.80 cells/mm 2 in 600mg/kg and 900mg/kg l-citrulline treated group while it increases to 15.60±2.27cells/mm 2 and17.96±2.73cells/mm 2 in the L-arginine and misoprotol treated group. It is therefore