Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the expression of intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) on supraoptic nucleus(SON) and paraventricular nucleus(PVN) in rat hypothalamus and its relationship with experimental gastric ulcer. Methods The changes of ITF in hypothalamus and blood serum in gastric ulcer group(GU) and normal group(N) rats were detected by means of immunohistochemical staining method and enzymelinked immunosorbent assay（ELISA).The transcription of ITF mRNA was detected by RT-PCR. Results ITF immunoreactive cells were mainly located in SON and magnocellular region of PVN(mPVN).The integral absorbance(IEM>A/EM>) was obviously increased from the day 2 to 6 after gastric ulcer(EM>P/EM> <0.01)，and reached a highest expression at the 6th day. then gradually decreased from 10 days to 23 days，but remained on a high level compared with the normal group(EM>P/EM><0.05). The change of ITF peptide in serum was similar to the immunohistochemical results. The absorbance of ITF/glyceral dehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was obviously higher in gastric ulcer group than that of the normal group from 2 days to 23 days（EM>P/EM><0.01 or EM>P/EM> <0.05）. Conclusion The high expression of ITF in rat hypothalamus and blood serum m