A 60-year-old male presents with GI bleeding and abdominal pain. He reports that he takes NSAIDs daily to prevent heart attack. Tests reveal that he has a peptic ulcer. The most likely cause of this disease is:
a. Increasing subepithelial bicarbonate production
b. Accelerating the H+ (proton) pump in parietal cells
c. Inhibiting mucosal prostaglandin synthesis
d. Stimulating a shunt of mucosal blood flow