A variety of environmental stressors can be shown to produce gastric ulceration in rats. Several converging lines of research have shown that endogenous histamine plays an essential role in stress-produced gastric ulceration. It has been demonstrated, as well, that the mechanism specifically involves the H2 receptor for histamine. Whether the actual stresses associated with a long-term space flight are sufficient to produce gastric ulceration in rats is uncertain, and the focus of this study.
Brown, P.A. and J. Vernikos-Danellis: Absence of Gastric Ulceration in Rats After Flight on the Cosmos 782. Final Reports of U.S. Experiments Flown on the Soviet Satellite Cosmos 782. S.N. Rosenzweig and K.A. Souza, eds., NASA TM-78525, 1978, pp. 200-206.
Brown, P.A. et al.: Histamine H2 Receptor: Involvement in Gastric Ulceration. Life Sciences, vol. 18, 1976, pp. 339-344.
Brown, P.A. et al.: Attenuation of Salicylate and Stress-Produced Gastric Ulceration by Metiamide. Proceedings of the Western Pharmacology Society, vol. 18, 1975, pp. 123-127.