Increased lysozyme expression in gastric biopsies with intestinal metaplasia and pseudopyloric metaplasia

摘要

Lysozyme is an innate enzyme with potent non-immunological antibacterial properties in the upper intestinal tract. Lysozyme expression (ly-ex) was investigated in 80 consecutive sets of gastric biopsies having normal gastric mucosa (n=20), chronic gastritis (n=20), gastric intestinal metaplasia (IM, n=20), and pseudopyloric metaplasia (PpM, n=20). In biopsies with normal mucosa and with chronic gastritis, the foveolar epithelium and the mucus neck cells of the fundic mucosa as well as the antropyloric glands had moderate (++) to marked (+++) ly-ex whereas the fundic glands proper did not express lysozyme. In IM the goblet and the Paneth cells showed marked (+++) ly-ex. PpM, developing in patients with autoimmune (corpus) gastritis, had moderate ly-ex (++), thus contrasting with the negative ly-ex in the normal or inflamed fundic mucosa. The emHelicobacter pylori/em did not proliferate in areas with IM or with PpM. The lysozyme production in IM and in PpM might be upregulated to eradicate ingested, proliferating bacteria in acid-deficient stomachs.