Relationship of transmural electrical potential difference to changes in gastric mucosal permeability to H + and blood flow

Abstract

Chambered in vivo wedges of proximal canine gastric mucosa were used to evaluate the relationship between PD, net H + and Na + fluxes, and gastric mucosal nutrient blood flow, as adjudicated by the ability of the mucosa to clear aminopyrine. Assuming that steady state conditions existed during the study, the results indicate that (1) the mean PD/15 minute period is a significant linear function of both net H + and net Na + flux and therefore, presumably, of changes in gastric mucosal permeability to cations, and (2) the mean PD/15 minute period is a significant exponential function of gastric mucosal nutrient blood flow, marked reductions in PD occurring at flows of 1 to 1.5 ml or less. If the thesis that acute posttraumatic hemorrhagic gastritis is a consequence of concomitant alterations in gastric mucosal permeability to H + and reductions in mucosal blood flow is correct, the PD might represent a useful clinical tool for detecting, in susceptible patients, the evolutionary stages of this devastating complication of trauma.