Cimetidine and Parietal Cell Regeneration in Experimental Wounds in Rat Gastric Mucosa

Cimetidine, 75 mg/kg body weight, was given twice daily by gastric tube to rats with experimental gastric ulcers. After 130 days' treatment the rats were killed, and sections from the wounds and normal mucosa were prepared for light and electron microscopy. Light microscopic studies showed that the regenerating mucosa in the wounds was thicker in the cimetidine-treated animals than in the controls. Stereological analyses demonstrated no differences in mean size of the parietal cells or in parietal cell volume density between the cimetidine-treated and the untreated groups, but an increase in the secretory surface density was detected in the parietal cells from rats that had been given cimetidine.