Protective effect of Acer mono Max. sap on water immersion restraint stress-induced gastric ulceration

Abstract

Abstract. Acer mono Max. sap (AmMs) is called 'Gol-Li-Su' or 'Go-Lo-Soe' in Korean, which means 'water beneficial to the bones'. It is reported that the sap contains several types of minerals and sugars. In particular, the calcium concentration of the sap is 36.5 times higher than that of commercial mineral water. Apart from its anti-osteoporosis effect, no reports have addressed the biological activities of AmMs against degenerative diseases. In the present study, we investigated whether AmMs alleviates gastric ulcer-related symptoms in a stress-induced mouse model. To assess the effect of AmMs on gastric ulcer-like symptoms, we carried out a water immersion restraint (WIRE) test and found that AmMs has potential in alleviating gastric ulcers in a concentration-dependent manner. These results indicate that the nutritional factors of the sap mitigate the gastric ulcer-related symptoms caused by stress-induced gastric lesions in mice. AmMs-treated mice exhibited a significant decrease in the ulcer index as compared to those treated with omeprazole or L-arginine. To examine one potential mechanism underlying this effect, we performed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to ascertain whether molecular markers were associated with the mitigation of the gastric lesions. Epithelial and/or tissue nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was assessed to determine whether or not the genes were down-regulated dose-dependently by the sap. The levels of these enzymes were found to be lower in the tissue samples treated with AmMs compared with the levels in the control samples. These findings collectively suggest that AmMs significantly protects the gastric mucosa against WIRE stress-induced gastric lesions, at least in part, by alleviating inducible NOS and/or neuronal NOS expression. IntroductionAcute gastric mucosal injury is a serious clinical problem worldwide. The symptoms cause severe gastric ulceritis and, with sustained exposure, eventually lead to gastric cancer. Researchers have developed many in vivo gastric lesion models: the water immersion restraint (WIRE) stress model, the indomethacin-induced model and the ethanol-induced model using animals (1). The WIRE model has previously been used to observe various aspects affecting the formation of and recovery from gastric mucosal lesions, including sulphydryls, prostaglandins, growth factors and polyamines (2). WIRE stress-induced gastric lesions have also been used to study the roles of cell death and gastric acid secretion in ulcerogenesis (3).In general terms, gastric lesions are a disorder of the gastric blockade, which typically protects against cavernous problems caused by hydrogen ions and other toxic substances generated in the lumen (4). One main component of the gastric barrier is gastric microcirculation; a disturbance in gastric mucosal perfusion results in the formation of lesions and ulcers, such as those that present in animal models of ischemic gastric lesions (5). Gastric blood flow is classically controlled by signaling molecules, such as prostagland...

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