SIMULTANEOUS MEASUREMENT OF CELL LOSS AND GASTRIC POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE IN THE RAT - EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM FASTING

These experiments utilized ex vivo gastric chamber preparations in both fed rats and rats fasted for 14-18 h. A new, simple technique is described for the quantification of cells in small volumes of fluid. The data indicate that exposure to solutions of 50 mM HCl was accompanied by greater cell loss in fasted vs. fed animals. The gastric potential differences of mucosae exposed to Ringer's mammalian saline, and subsequently to 50 mM HCl, were consistently at least 10 mV more negative in fasted animals.