Session 5: Enterochromaffin-Like Tumour Cells in the Diffuse but not the Intestinal Type of Gastric Carcinomas

Abstract

Waldum HL, Haugen OA, Isaksen C, Mecsei R, Sandvik AK. Enterochromaffin-like turnour cells in the diffuse but not the intestinal type of gastric carcinomas. Scand J Gastroenterol 1991, 26(suppl 180), 165–169

Gastrin may play a role in gastric carcinogenesk, as indicated by an increased frequency of gastric carcinomas in patients with pernicious anaemia and the fact that some human gastric cancer cell lines carry the gastrin receptor. Recently. it has been shown that the acid-stirnulatory effect of gastrin may be solely mediated by histamine release from the enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cell, on which gastrin has a specific trophic effect. We therefore found it of interest to examine human gastric carcinomas for the presence of ECL tumour cells by using silver staining and chromogranin immunohistochemistry. We found evidence of ECL cell-derived turnour cells in 40% of the diffuse gastric carcinomas but no such turnour cells in the intestinal type of gastric carcinoma. This map suggest that diffuse gastric carcinomas, like malignant gastric tumours of the mastomys. are in fact malignant ECLomas.

Key Words:

• Carcinogenesis
• enterochromaffin-like cell
• gastric carcinomas
• gastrin
• histamine