Gastric mucosal cell loss caused by aspirin and alcohol.

Gastric epithelial cell loss was studied in healthy volunteers before and after intragastric instillation of four aspirin (ASA) formulations and three strengths of alcohol. Each test solution was administered three times over a period of three hours during one of the experiments. Three of the four aspirin formulations significantly increased gastric epithelial cell loss. Microencapsulated aspirin increased gastric epithelial cell loss significantly, but only after the third dose. Alcohol, 10% (wine), increased cell loss to a similar extent as did microencapsulated aspirin. Alcohol, 20% (campari), and 40% (whisky), significantly enhanced cell loss to such a degree as was elicited by the two strengths of soluble aspirin. Thus, gastric cell loss increased dose-dependently after both aspirin and alcohol. The data suggest that, in man, gastric epithelial cell damage caused by different aspirin formulations and alcohol concentrations is reproducible and dose-dependent.