Effects of Folic acid on gastric injury induced by gastrotomy in rat

The objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of folic acid to treat gastric ulcer resulted from gastrotomy in rats. In this study, 75 adult Wistar rats with a mean weight of 280 ± 20 were used. These rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 15 ones. All rats were treated by gastrotomy surgery. The first group of rats received omeprazole (20 mg / kg), the second, third and fourth group were treated by 2, 5 and 10 mg / kg of folic acid respectively per body weight on daily basis for 21 days, and ultimately, the fifth group received water. Five rats from each group were randomly anesthetized on 7th, 14th and 21st day after the surgery. After removal of the stomach, the ulcer site was first examined macroscopically and then the lesions of the histopathologic sections were taken. After staining of Hematoxylin-Eosin and chrome ventricle, gastric ulcer healing was examined through microscope. The results of histopathologic studies showed that the rats in the folic acid and omeprazole treatment group had significantly better pathological results (p <0.05) than the control group. Based on the obtained results, it seems that folic acid has appropriate and acceptable impacts on healing of gastrotomy in rats.