Gastric transmural potential difference in rats fed with a retionol-free diet.

The concentration of retinol is decreased in serum after periods of stress. The incidence of stress ulcers can be reduced in experimental animals and in man by high doses of retinol. It has been postulated that the stress-induced reduction of serum retinol may be implicated as one of the factors favouring the development of stress ulcers. Functional damage to the gastric mucosa triggered off by noxious agents and particularly ulcerogenic drugs is followed by a fall of the transmural potential difference (P. D.). This observation has led us to investigate whether retinol-depleted rats display an alteration of the P.D. as a parameter of gastric mucosal dysfunction, when compared with animals optimally supplied with retinol. In this study it should not be demonstrated that the P.D. differs between optimally fed and retinol-deficient animals in spite of severe retinol depletion.