[Histoautoradiographic studies of Billroth I-operated rat stomachs in relation to the postoperative interval. I. Proliferation kinetics in the area of the gastroenterostomy].

Nowadays the resected stomach is considered to be in a precancerous state in the broader sense. Until now there have been no systematic, histoautoradiographic investigations concerning the proliferative kinetics of the resected stomach in the region of anastomosed mucosa sections. Histoautoradiographic investigations should give an answer to the following questions: 1. In which way do the proliferative kinetics of gastric mucosa in the part of the anastomosis change with increasing postoperative interval? 2. Is there a result of variations in the proliferative kinetics of the anastomotic distant mucosa of the fundus? To find an answer to these questions, 75 Wistar-rats out of 231 operated rats (Billroth's 1st principle) were selected for histoautographic analysis. The laboratory animals were killed at fixed points of time in a postoperative interval of 104 weeks of experiment and the gastrointestinal preparations were worked up and interpreted for the histoautographic analysis. During the postoperative period the 3H-labelling-indices showed a characteristic course in the part of the gastric anastomosis. After a continuous increase of the 3H-labelling indices up to the fourfold of standard values two years after the operation there was a slight decrease of the proliferative activity. But it still remained twice the normal value. In addition, extended displacements and decompositions of gastric anastomosis mucosa could be observed. However, the proliferative activity in the anastomotid distant mucosa remained unchanged. A cell proliferation of gastric anastomosis increasing considerably and demonstrated in our experiment has to be considered as promotion factor of cancer development. Anastomotic carcinomas developing during the total experiment give evidence for this.