Gastric mucosal PGE2 levels in gastric non-ulcer and ulcer patients with chronic renal failure or without renal diseases and in healthy subjects.

PGE2-like immunoactivity in mucosal specimens from gastric corpus and antrum was measured in individuals with chronic uremia or without renal diseases in absence or presence of gastric ulcerations and in healthy subjects. Regardless the group of patients, compared to normal mucosa, a significant decrease in PGE2-like immunoactivity (50-70%) was found in mucosa from atrophic, but not from superficial gastritis. Whenever patients of the control group or patients with renal diseases suffered from ulcers, PGE2-like immunoactivity, compared to nonulcer subjects, revealed a decrease of about 60-70% in the nonulcerated mucosa. Compared to nonulcerated mucosa, the tissue of the ulcer rim in all patients with gastric ulcer showed a relative increase in PGE2-like immunoactivity, eg, PGE2-like immunoactivity was twice as high in tissue from the ulcer rim. The output of PGE2-like immunoactivity into the gastric juice of subjects without renal diseases was comparable to that found in patients with chronic uremia in both basal and pentagastrin-stimulated conditions. We therefore conclude that gastric mucosal formation is probably not influenced by chronic uremia.