The effects of ranitidine and cysteamine on intestinal metaplasia induced by X-irradiation in rats.

The influence of ranitidine and cysteamine on intestinal metaplasia was examined in 7-month-old male Crj: CD (SD) rats. At the age of 5 weeks, the animals were treated with 10 Gy doses of X-rays at 3-day intervals up to a total of 20 Gy in the gastric region, and 6 months after irradiation, the rats received either ranitidine (0.02% in diet) or cysteamine (0.1% in drinking water) for 2 months. The incidence and number of intestinal metaplasia with alkaline phosphatase-positive foci in rats given X-rays and cysteamine (group 4) were significantly low compared with those in rats given X-rays and ranitidine (group 3) (p less than 0.01). In both the pyloric and the fundic gland mucosae, the average numbers of type C metaplasia (intestinal crypts with Paneth cells) and total numbers of metaplastic foci in rats of group 3 were much higher than those in group 4 (P less than 0.05). The present results showed that the occurrence of intestinal metaplasia was significantly increased after administration of ranitidine and decreased by cysteamine.