A fine structural characterization of the proliferated endocrine cells in atrophic gastric mucosa.

This study shows that most of the proliferated endocrine cells in nonintestinalized epithelium in the body of stomachs in patients with pernicious anemia have the fine structure of ECL (enterochromaffin-like) cells, the principal endocrine cell in the body of normal stomachs, and notes an absence of G (gastrin) cells, the principal endocrine cell in the normal pylorus. Since gastrin has been identified in many of these proliferated cells by immunofluorescence, these findings question the position that gastrin synthesis in the stomach is only associated with G cells.