Cysteamine.HCl, when administered subcutaneously at 350 mg/kg, consistently induced severe gastric lesions in Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY), but not in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). In both WKY and SHR, visible ulcers could not be induced in the duodenum in response to cysteamine. It appears that the stomach and duodenum of SHR are resistant to cysteamine due to hyperfunctioning of the sympathetic nervous system.