[Protective effect of somatostatin against stress injury of gastric mucosa may be related to the scavenge of free radicals].

In the present study, it was observed that somatostatin could significantly protect rat gastric mucosa from injury induced by cold-restraint stress and inhibit the stress induced increase of malonaldehyde (MDA) content. In the gastric mucosa of stress rats, the xanthine oxidase (XO) activity were increased and the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity were decreased respectively, while the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity showed no change. After pretreatment with somatostatin, the decrease of GSH-Px activity was significantly reversed, whereas XO and SOD activities were not significantly affected. The above results show that the protective effect of somatostatin against the stress-induced injury of gastric mucosa may be related to an enhancement of the ability of gastric mucosa to scavenge oxygen-derived free radicals.