Protective Effects of Borago officinalis (Borago) on Cold Restraint Stress-Induced Gastric Ulcers in Rats: A Pilot Study. 2020

Alessandro Di Cerbo, and Gianluca Carnevale, and Rossella Avallone, and Manuela Zavatti, and Lorenzo Corsi
School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Matelica, Italy.

Stress is a typical body's natural defense to a generic physical or psychic change. A specific linking mechanism between ulcer onset and psycho-physical stress prolonged exposure has been reported. We decided to investigate the possible effects of Borago officinalis L. (Borago) in preventing physical (stress)-induced gastric ulcers in a rat model. Eighty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 16 groups, pretreated with a control solution, omeprazole (20 mg/kg), Borago methanolic extract (25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 mg/kg), Borago organic extract (50, 100, 250, and 500 mg/kg), Borago aqueous extract (5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mg/kg), and D(-)-2-Amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (AP5) (25 mg/kg) and kept in stressful conditions such as water immersion and restraint-induced stress ulcers. The animals were sacrificed and their stomach scored for the severity and the number of gastric ulcers. Methanolic extract (500 mg/kg) significantly reduced both ulcer parameters (*** p < 0.001 and ** p < 0.01, respectively). Aqueous and organic extract significantly decreased severity score at 5 and 10 mg/kg (** p < 0.01 and *** p < 0.001, respectively), and at 250 and 500 mg/kg (*** p < 0.001), respectively, while gastric ulcers' resulted number significantly reduced only at 10 mg/kg (* p < 0.05) and at 500 mg/kg (** p < 0.01), respectively. On the other hand, aqueous extract significantly increased the mucosal gastric content of cAMP (* p < 0.05) and NR2A and NR2B subunits (* p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01, respectively) at 5 mg/kg. Organic extract showed also a significant cytotoxic effect at 500 and 1,000 mg/kg with a 3T3 cell viability reduction of 43.6% (** p < 0.01) and 92.1% (*** p < 0.001), respectively. Borago aqueous extract at 10 mg/kg could be considered as a potential protective agent against stress-induced ulcers, and it is reasonable to possibly ascribe such protective activity to a modulation of the NR2A and NR2B subunit expression.

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