Increased susceptibility of aging gastric mucosa to injury: The mechanisms and clinical implications

Figure 11 Extent of ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in young and aging rats. A: Three hours after intragastric administration of 8 mL/kg of 50% ethanol, gastric mucosal injury is significantly increased in aging rats vs young rats; B: Intragastric administration of ZnSO₄ for 4 h (2 mL 0.5% solution) downregulates phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) protein expression in gastric mucosa of aging rats vs placebo control (PL); C: Intragastric administration of ZnSO₄ to aging rats for 4 h completely reverses the increased susceptibility of gastric mucosa to ethanol-induced injury indicating a causal relationship between PTEN and mucosal injury. Reproduced with permission from Tarnawski et al[1].