Abstract

Florey(1960) and more recently Skoryna(1967) emphasized the intimate relationship between mucin production and peptic ulcer. Skoryna had an idea that "gastric let" or "let mechanism" was the sum of mechanism which protected the gastric wall against mechanical and chemical injuries, and he insisted on the involvement of mucin production in this Mechanism. Selye(1950) reported about gastric ulcer following injuries, but he did not mention mucus secretion in the formation of gastric ulcer in the systemic stress. Kim(1965) revealed that injury induced not only regressive changes in the gastric mucosa but also marked decrease of mucus secretion, and Kim and Kim(1968) applied the autoradiographic technique with radioactive 35S (Na³⁵₂SO₄) to the mucus secretion following systemic injury and demonstrated that injury induced marked regressive changes and also marked decrease of mucin production both in gastric mucosa and rectum. Therefore the authors performed the autoradiographic observation of early incorporation of L-leucine-U-14C into the gastrointestinal tract in both of normal and burned mice in order to confirm that injury may act on protein metabolism of the gastrointestinal tract. The results were as follows: In the burned mice, the incorporation rate of L-leucine-U-14C into the epithelial cells of the mucosa both of the esophagus and the duodenum reached its maximum earlier and that of the stomach, the small intestine and the colon later than those of normal mice. Brunner's glandular cells of the duodeum were enhanced the protein synthesis following injuries.