Effect of rebamipide on mucus secretion by endogenous prostaglandin-independent mechanism in rat gastric mucosa.

The effect of rebamipide (2-(4-chlorobenzoylamino)-3-[2 (1H)-quinolinon-4-yl]-propionic acid, OPC-12759, CAS 11911-87-6), an anti-ulcer agent developed to enhance defensive factors in the gastric mucosa, on gastric mucus secretion was studied by a newly developed biochemical method to measure the gastric mucus glycoprotein content in rats. 1 h after intraperitoneal administration, rebamipide did not produce a significant change in the intramucosal mucus contents (surface mucosal layer and deep mucosal layers of corpus and antral regions) but significantly increased the content of soluble mucus, which recovered from the gastric contents, to about 160% of the control value. Since rebamipide has been shown to increase the biosynthesis of prostaglandins, indometacin was administered to the rats prior to rebamipide administration to examine whether the increase in prostaglandin biosynthesis contributes to the rebamipide-induced increase in gastric mucus secretion. The increase in the soluble mucus was not altered by the pretreatment with indometacin, thus indicating that rebamipide per se has a potential to increase the gastric mucus secretion by a mechanism that is not mediated by the endogenous prostaglandins. The effect of rebamipide on the gastric mucus secretion might contribute to heal and to prevent the recurrence of peptic ulcer diseases as well as to maintain the homeostasis of the gastric mucosa.