Comparative Study of Histochemical Patterns in Non-Neoplastic and Neoplastic Gastric Epithelium: A Study of Japanese in Hawaii2

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Abstract
The distribution of mucosubstances and enzymes in nonneoplastic and neoplastic gastric epithelial cells was studied in Japanese people of Hawaii. The mucosubstances of the infant's surface cells differed From those of the adult in that they stained as acid, rather than neutral, mucosubstances. This characteristic was lost by the body epithelium after that of the pyloric antrum. The fetal and neonatal pylorus contained isolated cells with the histochemical characteristics of intestinal cells. Intestinal epithelium was found in the pylorus of all patients with gastric cancer and gastric ulcer. The staining reactions of chief cells suggested that they contained a sulfomucin. Some cancer cells also showed these reactions. The enzymes and mucosubstances noted in the gastric carcinomas varied from patient to patient and even from cell to cell in the same tumor. They did not consistently resemble any one non-neoplastic gastric or intestinal epithelial cell, nor could the histochemical characteristics of a tumor be correlated with the degree of its morphologic differentiation. These studies suggest that cell regeneration after injury may proceed from a stem cell along several lines and permit the development of mature gastric and intestinal cell types and carcinoma. They also support the view that intestinal metaplasia is not an obligatory precursor of gastric cancer. This study also demonstrated that mitotic figures of gastric carcinoma are periodic acid-Schiff, periodic acid diamine, and periodic acid-phenylhydrazine-Schiff-positive. This reaction was not found in nondividing cancer nuclei or in non-neoplastic nuclei and was abolished after exposure to ribonucleas.