The importance of smooth muscle cells in the development of foam cells in the gastric mucosa. An electron microscopic study.

Foam cells in lipid islands of the stomach can develop from both histiocytes and smooth muscle cells. With increasing storage of lipid vacuoles in smooth muscle cells, loosening of the myofilament arrangement and decrease of the dense areas subjacent to the plasma membrane occurs. Endoplasmic reticulum and the cisternae of the Golgi-apparatus dilate, the cell organelles increase initially and the basement membrane of the smooth muscle cells is fragmentarily formed. Only in incompletely formed foam cells can the origin from smooth muscle cells be recognised, in their final state their histiogenesis is seldom apparent.