Oxidative stress is believed to initiate and aggravate many diseases including peptic ulcers and gastric carcinoma.

We observed an increase in rat gastric mucosal lipid peroxidation (LPO) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and a decrease in catalase (CAT) levels in cold restraint stress-induced gastric ulceration while, in clinical peptic ulceration and gastric carcinoma patients, an increase in serum LPO and a tendency to decrease in SOD and CAT levels were observed.

The result thus, indicated a positive correlation between free radical-induced oxidative stress both in gastric and duodenal ulcers and gastric carcinoma.