Phospholipid Association Reduces the Gastric Mucosal Toxicity of Aspirin in Human Subjects

OBJECTIVE: In previous studies on rats, we have shown that aspirin (ASA)-induced injury to the gastric mucosa is mark-edly reduced or completely abolished if ASA is chemically associated with the phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine (PC). We have also shown that the protective effect of PC does not influence the ability of ASA to inhibit mucosal cyclooxy-genase (COX) activity in the stomach and other tissues. We therefore sought to assess the effect of PC-associated ASA (ASA/PC) on the gastric mucosa of normal volunteers and to compare the results with the use of ASA alone. METHODS: Sixteen normal healthy subjects were adminis-tered ASA or ASA/PC in a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study. The subjects received ASA in a dose of 650 mg three times a day for 3 days or an equivalent dose of ASA chemically associated with PC. Endoscopy was performe