Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 37, Issue 6 492-498, Copyright © 1975 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The interaction of behavior and environmental conditions in the production of stomach lesions in the rat

JO Sines

Moderate amounts of several different experimental procedures are capable of producing stomach lesions in laboratory rats. The fact that some animals fail to develop such lesions under most conditions suggests that uncontrolled variables are involved in the physiological response. Although physiological characteristics of the experimental animals have most often been studied, several reports indicate that the activity level of the animal just before the stress period is related to the proportion of animals that develop lesions or the severity of lesions that develop. This suggests that the tendency to develop stomach lesions may depend on the interaction between the level of an animal's activity and the nature of the environmental conditions to which it is exposed. A study is reported in which two equally pathogenic environmental conditions are shown to be differentially pathogenic for behaviorally different animals.

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