Fat-supplemented diet protects against activity-stress ulcers in rats.

Rats were exposed to a fat-supplemented (32.5% beef tallow) diet from weaning until they were 200 g in weight. Half the animals were exposed to the activity stress paradigm consisting of housing in standard activity-wheel cages while restricting their food intake to 1 h each day. Control rats were treated in the same fashion but on a fat-free (0.08%) diet. Fat-supplemented activity-stressed rats exhibited high levels of running wheel activity but less mortality and less gastric pathology than fat-free controls which were exposed to the activity-stress procedure. Ulcers were not observed in home cage housed rats in either diet condition.