Spontaneous stomach ulcer in genetically mast-cell depleted W/W^v mice

Abstract

Histamine has been implicated in the pathogenesis of gastroduodenal ulcers^1,2. Since mast cells contain a considerable amount of histamine as well as heparin and other biologically active substances³, it seems reasonable to speculate that they are involved in this process^4,5. In fact, development of gastroduodenal ulcers was reported in dogs with mastocytoma⁶, and an increase in mast-cell number was described in the vicinity of human gastroduodenal ulcers^7,8. Y.K. et al.⁹ have recently found that the number of mast cells in a unit length of the skin of W/W^v mutant mice is less than 1% of the value for the congeneic +/+ mice and that no mast cells are detected in the intestinal canal of W/W^v mice. Therefore, this mutant mouse was used to investigate the role of mast cells in the induction of gastroduodenal ulcers. As a preliminary experiment, we examined the stomach and duodenum of ^{W/W v} mice without any treatments. Unexpectedly, we found the spontaneous development of perforating stomach ulcers in W/W^v mice, suggesting that mast cells do not necessarily have aggravating effects on the production of stomach ulcers.