PD--the electric potential difference across the gastric mucosa--is a variable used to describe the gastric mucosal integrity and function. A new, reliable, and easily applied method for gastric PD measurements corrected for the disturbing liquid junction potentials between gastric juice and the PD measuring probe is presented. PD is measured with the gastric lumen negative, and a numeric reduction in PD is used as an expression of an injured mucosal condition. A reduced gastric PD is found along with a reduced gastric mucosal blood flow after intravenous indomethacin in anesthetized dogs. Increasing the FFA/albumin ratios in mini-pigs causes vasoconstriction and PD reduction. Short hypoxia and selective gastric ischemia cause a reversible PD reduction and no morphologic changes in anesthetized dogs, but ischemia for 1 h causes more permanent changes in PD, pH, and morphology. This damage can be reduced by allopurinol pretreatment, possibly due to the inhibition of oxygen-derived free radical formation. Gastric PD and pH were measured in volunteers and duodenal ulcer patients during Stroop's color word conflict test, in which mental stress causes sympathetic activation. A PD reduction and a pH increase were found along with stress induction, thereby indicating an influence of mental stress on stomach mucosal function. It is concluded that gastric PD measurement may be useful in ulcer pathogenetic research, and a sufficient gastric mucosal blood flow is stressed as being important for the mucosal defense.