Effect of lysolecithin on the constituents of gastric mucus.

Abstract

The surface epithelium of gastric mucosa is covered by an extracellular and renewable layer of a viscous mucus gel. This, together with an intracellular apical layer of mucus has been referred to by Hollander (1954) as “two layer mucous barrier”. Yet its ability to protect the underlying mucosa from the physical and enzymatic injury has been questioned by Heatley (1959), and later protective function has been rather assigned to the so-called “mucosal barrier”. This Is supposed to consist of the plasma membranes and the intracellular and basal membranes, as well as junctions of the epithelium (Davenport, 1970). Only more recently, when the retardation of acid and pepsin diffusion by mucus gel has been demonstrated by newer technics (Allen, 1976; Pearson et al, 1980; Williams and Turnberg, 1980) the potential role of the mucus in mucosal protection became plausible again. It has been also realized that the solubilization, depolymerization and depletion of the mucus may be contributory to the breaking of the “mucosal barrier” by anti-inflammatory agents, such as aspirin, indomethacin, phenylbutazone, steroids, etc. or other agents, such as stress, bile acids or et llanol (Stremple et al, 1973; Glass and Slomiany, 1977; Glass et al, 1979).KeywordsGastric MucosaMucous LayerMucosal BarrierSilicic Acid ColumnGastric ErosionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.