Effect of age, food deprivation and stress on gastric erosions in the rat

Two experiments were conducted in which rats were subjected to food deprivation and/or cold-restraint stress. In Experiment 1, 40- and 570-day old rats exhibited a significant degree of glandular gastric erosion due to the stress and to the deprivation. Both of these were attributable to the single condition wherein deprivation and stress were combined. No effect involving age was significant. In Experiment 2, 22-day old weanlings exposed to the same conditions evinced a significant glandular erosion effect of the deprivation, but neither the stress nor the interaction effects were significant. It was concluded that 3 hr of cold restraint in the sated mature rat has a relatively minor effect on the stomach. Forty-eight hours of food deprivation, also ineffective by itself in such animals, renders the stomach vulnerable to the effects of stress. In the weanling, in contrast, deprivation alone can cause glandular erosion but its potentiating effect is lacking. With respect to ruminal lesions, it was hypothesized that time without food rather than initial body weight or nutritional deficit is the critical variable.