Gastric mucosal injury and associated changes in mucosal blood flow and gastric fluid secretion caused by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in rats.

Dimethyl sulfoxide applied intragastrically for 10 min in rats caused extensive mucosal damage. In concentrations of 5%, 10%, or 100%, dimethyl sulfoxide caused superficial damage to 33%, 36%, and 97%, respectively, of the corpus mucosa, and 28%, 44%, and 96%, respectively, of the antral mucosa. Concentrated dimethyl sulfoxide also caused damage to the pits and glands in some areas of the mucosa. The amount of fluid in the stomach increased by 0.24 ml, 0.48 ml, and 2.07 ml during application of 5%, 10%, and 100% dimethyl sulfoxide. The 10% dimethyl sulfoxide increased mucosal blood flow by 0.57 ml/min/g in the antrum, and 100% dimethyl sulfoxide increased mucosal blood flow by 2.21 ml/min/g in the antrum and by 1.17 ml/min/g in the corpus. We conclude that dimethyl sulfoxide is a gastric irritant, which should be considered when it is used as an oxygen radical scavenger, as a drug or carcinogen vehicle, or as oral medication in patients. The protective effect of intragastric dimethyl sulfoxide against stress and various drug-induced gastric injury may be due to "adaptive cytoprotection" rather than an oxyradical scavenger effect.