Influence of hydrocortisone on the development of the gastric mucosa in suckling rats. Inhibitory effect on gastrin cell population

The effect of a 6-day hydrocortisone administration on the development of gastric mucosa was investigated in suckling rats. Three doses of hydrocortisone (40, 20 and 5 mg/kg/day) were given during the 2nd week of life. Gastric morphometric parameters, and exocrine parietal cell and endocrine gastrin cell numbers were examined and gastrin content in antral tissue was determined. At the end of hydrocortisone treatment, parietal and chief cells were well differentiated. Their larger size was marked in comparison with controls, which likely explains in itself the significant increase in gastric mucosal height. Only the highest dose significantly increased antral gastrin content over control values. However, hydrocortisone, whatever the dose, reduced the apparent antral gastrin cell population by about 60% (p less than 0.001), without noticeably modifying the numerical density of parietal cells per unit of fundic surface. It is nevertheless likely that the highest dose diminished total parietal cell number since the gastric surface decreased. These results suggest that glucocorticoids affect the development of the gastrin cell population while greatly accelerating the maturation of these cells during the suckling period.