Effect of gastric acidity regulation on the gastrointestinal transit time and secretion of gastric fluids in beagle dogs

A regulation method of gastric pH toward the neutral-to-alkaline range in fasted beagle dogs was proposed by famotidine (FA) and the amount of gastric fluids and the time of gastrointestinal transit for liquids were investigated in beagle dogs whose gastric acidity was regulated to two pH ranges. The amount of liquids in the stomach was about 0.5 g/kg for control and FA treatment, and 1.8 g/kg for pentagastrin (PG) treatment, which regulates the gastric pH towards the acid range. The mean gastric half-emptying time of liquids in dogs was 13.3 min for control, 16.7 min for FA treatment and 9.2 min for PG treatment. The median oro-cacal transit time of liquids was 3.5 h for control and PG treatment, and 3.8 h for FA treatment. The regulation of the gastric acidity has no statistically significant effect on the gastrointestinal transit of liquids. These findings can be useful when predicting the in vivo performance of drugs in humans from the data of bioavailability studies with dogs whose gastric pH were regulated.