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Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

Mucosal Repair and COX-2 Inhibition

Author(s): Rafael F. Perini, Li Ma and John L. Wallace

Volume 9, Issue 27, 2003

Page: [2207 - 2211] Pages: 5

DOI: 10.2174/1381612033454027

Price: $65

Abstract

The healing of gastric ulcer is a complicated process that involves the proliferation of epithelial and endothelial cells and the concerted actions of a wide range of growth factors. Prostaglandins play an important role in ulcer healing. Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is markedly upregulated around the margins of gastric ulcers and its inhibition leads to a delay of ulcer healing. Several of the growth factors that promote ulcer healing may work in part through COX- 2-dependent mechanisms. Angiogenesis, which is crucial to ulcer healing, is tightly regulated by growth factors. Treatment with selective COX-2 inhibitors appears to alter the balance of serum levels of growth factors, favoring an inhibition of angiogenesis. Given the importance of COX-2 in regulating ulcer healing, caution should be taken in the use of selective inhibitors of COX-2 by patients at risk of ulcer disease.

Keywords: ulcer healing, angiogenesis, cyclooxygenase, prostaglandin, endothelium, platelets


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