Duodenal pathology in rats following cold-restraint stress

Rats were found to develop duodenal abnormalities as a monotonic function of stress: following a 41-hr fast, 17% had lesions; when cold stress was superimposed during the last 14 hr of the fast, 38% had lesions; when restraint was superimposed upon the last 17 hr of the fast and accompanied exposure to cold, 83% had lesions. Amount of duodenal pathology correlated across experimental groups with amount of gastric pathology seen, but for individual animals, presence of gastric and duodenal pathology did not necessarily co-vary. The existence of gastric and duodenal pathology in stressed rats mirrors that found in stressed humans and thus gives credence to the notion that the rat is a useful animal for study of acute, stress-induced gastro-duodenal disease.