Organ culture of human gastric mucosa and gastric cancers. 1. Morphological aspects.

An organ culture system for explants of human gastric mucosa and gastric cancer from surgical resection specimens is described. Pyloric mucosa has been successfully maintained in vitro for up to 120 h, and gastric carcinoma for up to 48 h. Morphological preservation by light and electron microscopy was good, although some simplification of the glandular pattern occurred in normal mucosa with longer periods of in vitro culture. [3H]-thymidine and [3H]-leucine uptake was assessed by autoradiography, and patterns of uptake resembled those described in vivo in normal gastric mucosa and gastric intestinal metaplasia. Labelling indices with [3H]-thymidine were however low compared with in vivo estimates. Successful organ culture of human gastric tissue offers a useful method for investigating factors affecting growth control in normal and neoplastic gastric epithelium.