Immunoglobulins IgA and IgG in Gastric Mucosa of Patients with Atrophic Gastritis and Pernicious Anemia

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Abstract
The content and distribution of immunoglobulins IgA and IgG in gastric mucosa were correlated in 55 individuals with gastric histology, circulating parietal cell antibodies (PCA) and intrinsic factor antibodies (IFA) in serum and the output of intrinsic factor (IF) in the stomach. While a small amount of IgG and IgA is found in normal gastric mucosa, these immunoglobulins (mostly IgA) increase in gastritis, especially in its chronic atrophic form, without metaplasia. The immunoglobulins, mainly IgA, are here contained within the round cell infiltrates. There is a gross parallelism between the amount of round cells infiltrating the gastric mucosa and the content of immunoglobulins therein. No correlation was found between the presence or absence of circulating PCA and IFA in serum and the content of immunoglobulins in the gastric mucosa. No PCA could be detected in the gastric mucosa of patients with chronic atrophic gastritis with or without intestinal metaplasia by the method used. No correlation was found between the decrease in IF output and the content of immunoglobulins in the gastric mucosa. While patients with most advanced atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia showed the greatest impairment of IF output in the stomach, the content of IgA and IgG in their gastric mucosa was lower than that of patients with advanced atrophic gastritis without metaplasia, who also had a higher average output of IF in the stomach, than in the former group. The accumulation of immunoglobulins (mainly IgA) in the atrophic stomach is thus to be considered as a corollary of the inflammatory infiltration of the gastric mucosa, by round cells producing immunoglobulins.