Effects of starvation, feeding, and time of day on the activity of proton transport adenosine triphosphatase in the parietal cells of the mouse gastric glands.

The effects of starvation, feeding, and time of day on mouse gastric glands were studied by means of an enzyme histochemical method for K+-dependent p-nitrophenyl phosphatase (K+-NPPase), a partial reaction of the proton pump ATPase which drives gastric acid secretion. The stomachs of mice starved for 24 h showed very low levels of parietal cell K+-NPPase histochemical reaction. However, a brief meal following such a period of starvation produced an abrupt increase in K+-NPPase reaction within most of the parietal cell-containing glands though not all parietal cells were equally susceptible to stimulation. The number of glands containing K+-NPPase-reactive parietal cells fell slowly in the hours following a feeding stimulus. These changes were shown to be caused by feeding rather than by general arousal and to follow the feeding cycle in ad libitum fed animals. The reasons that parietal cells in the basal parts of mouse gastric glands cannot be induced to show K+-NPPase reactivity by a feeding stimulus are not understood.