Aspirin inhibits mucus secretion in the gallbladder of the Richardson's ground squirrel fed a lithogenic diet

The cholesterol-fed Richardson's around squirrel (spermophilus richardsonii) has proven to be an effective model in which to study gallstone formation and changes in the gallbladder epithelium. Male and female ground squirrels were divided into control and experimental groups. The control groups were fed a commercial rat-chow diet while the experimental groups were fed a 2% cholesterol-enriched rat chow diet. [³H] galactose was administered intraperitoneally at a dosage of 1.0μ Ci/g body weight (specific activity 5-20 Ci/mmole). Sample intervals of 1, 3, 5, and 7 days were used. The morphological investigation into the effect of aspirin on the cholelithiasic process has shown that mucin synthesis was inhibited, the number of granules decreasing the longer the animal was administered the drug. While the cholesterol saturation of bile was not affected, no stones were formed by day 7 in the aspirin-treated animals.