Background: Beta-microseminoprotein is a 94-kDa protein present on most mucosal surfaces in the body. It is produced in mucin cells but is also found in a particular type of cells (E-cells) in the gastric antral mucosa. Most of these cells also contain gastrin. In atrophic corpus gastritis the gastrin-producing cells become hyperplastic, and the patients have hypergastrinemia. We wanted to ascertain whether there is a similar effect on the E-cells and on the concentration of beta-microseminoprotein in serum.
Methods: Antral biopsy specimens from 10 patients with atrophic corpus gastritis and 10 controls were stained immunohistochemically for beta-microseminoprotein and gastrin. beta-Microseminoprotein and gastrin were measured by radioimmunoassay in serum from 15 women with atrophic corpus gastritis and 31 healthy female blood donors.
Results: There was a 3.5-fold increase of the number of E-cells (which also were hypertrophic) and a 2.1 times higher serum concentration of beta-microseminoprotein in the patients with atrophic corpus gastritis than in the control subjects. Gastrin was seen in 28% of the E-cells in patients with atrophic corpus gastritis, compared with 87% in normal antral mucosa. There was no correlation between the serum concentrations of beta-microseminoprotein and gastrin.
Conclusions: In atrophic corpus gastritis antrum E-cells undergo hyperplasia and hypertrophy, and the proportion of E-cells containing gastrin decreases. Increased amounts of beta-microseminoprotein are secreted to the blood but uncorrelated with gastrin.