A new factor in the blood of patients with peptic ulcer. Distribution in blood fractions.

Previous work on a factor in the blood of patients with peptic ulcer which contracts smooth muscle was confirmed and the work extended to investigation of the activity of blood fractions. Whole heparinized blood and its fractions were tested on a strip of guinea pig ileum and height of contraction and latent period were used as criteria of activity. Whole heparinized blood of ulcer patients had significantly higher activity than that of normal controls.

The influence of carbenoxolone on steroid-induced ulcer and mucus secretion in the rat.

In rats, gastric mucus was decreased by starvation. The administration of carbenoxolone sodium, prednisolone, or their combination to starved rats brought the level of gastric mucus to that of nonstarved controls. Concomitant treatment with carbenoxolone sodium did not prevent prednisolone-induced ulceration of the glandular stomach in starved rats.

HUMORAL FACTOR FROM THE BRAIN WHICH ACTIVATES GASTRIC MOTILITY.

When the vagus nerves in the neck of the dog are cut and the ends toward the brain are stimulated, gastric contractions follow. These contractions are not abolished by section of the cervical spinal cord, section of anterior and posterior thoracic and lumbar spinal nerves, section of the splanchnic nerves, or paralysis or excision of the celiac plexus. Evidence for the existence of a humoral blood-borne substance originating in the brain was obtained by experiments with an isolated perfused head, by perfusion of isolated stomachs by donor dogs, by cross-perfusion between two dogs, and by plasmapheresis.