Ultrastructure of Parietal Cells before and after Proximal Gastric Vagotomy in Duodenal Ulcer Patients

Abstract

Aase, S., Roland, M. & Olsen, B. R. Ultrastructure of parietal cells before and after proximal gastric vagotomy in duodenal ulcer patients. Scand. J. Gastroent. 1976, 11, 55-64.

In order to examine whether the reduced acid secretion observed after proxi-mal gastric vagotomy (PGV) is accompanied by intracellular changes in pari-etal cells, the ultrastructure of parietal cells before and after PGV has been studied in four duodenal ulcer patients. A stereological analysis of electron micrographs shows that after PGV there is a reduction in the volume density of microvilli and the surface density of canalicular membranes. Ten days after PGV there is a temporary increase in the surface density of tubulo-vesicular membranes. However, 3 months after the operation most of this membrane material has been removed so that the surface density of tubulo-vesicles at this late stage is only insignificantly higher than before the opera-tion. The relative volume of dense bodies is more than doubled 3 months after PGV, and the observed removal of tubulo-vesicular membranes between the 10 days and the 3 months stage may therefore be due to lysosomal activity.

Key-words::

• Duodenal ulcer
• electron microscopy
• gastric mucosa
• gastric secretion
• parietal cell
• stereology
• vagotomy, proximal gastric