The size of human parietal cells before and 7 days after vagotomy.

Gastric biopsies from nine patients were studied before proximal gastric vagotomy (PGV) and 7 days after the operation. The average size of the individual parietal cell and its nucleus were calculated by point-counting stereology. The volume of the nucleus was not significantly altered postoperatively. The median volume of the whole cell was reduced from 4976 micron 3 before vagotomy to 3981 micron 3 after the operation (p less than 0.05). The reduction of the cell volume is sufficient to explain our previous finding that parietal cells constitute a smaller fraction of the mucosal volume 1 week after PGV.