Gastric ulcer affects people worldwide, and its inefficacy and recurrence have fueled the search for new therapeutic strategies. Despite the well-known use of
allantoin in medicines and cosmetic products, its effect has not yet been studied with regard to
gastric ulcer. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore the pharmaco-mechanistic efficacy of
allantoin against commonly harmful agents that cause
injuries to the stomach.
Ethanol,
indomethacin, and stress-induced
gastric ulcer models were adopted, in addition to pylorus
ligature, a quantification of vascular permeability,
glutathione (GSH), gastric adhered mucus,
prostaglandin (
PGE2), pro-inflammatory
cytokines levels,
myeloperoxidase (MPO), and
catalase (CAT) activities. The gastric lesions were examined by gross, histological, and ultrastructural features. The results showed that treatment with
allantoin (60mg/kg, per oral) reduced the
gastric ulcer formation in all models. Furthermore,
allantoin reduced the parameters of gastric acid secretion and attenuated both the vascular permeability and MPO activity. The levels of pro-inflammatory
cytokines were also reduced, accompanied by a restoration of CAT activity and GSH levels. Notably,
allantoin treatment preserved the gastric-adhered mucus and
PGE2 levels after
ethanol administration. Microscopic and ultrastructural analysis revealed that
allantoin maintained tissue integrity and prevented morphological changes in cells caused by
ethanol. In summary, we demonstrated for the first time that
allantoin possesses gastroprotective activity through anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, antisecretory, and cytoprotective mechanisms. The antisecretory and cytoprotective mechanisms are probably associated with an increase in
PGE2 levels.