Paper Electrophoretic Study of Protein-Losing Secretions from Explanted Gastric Mucosa in Rats. ∗

Summary and conclusions

Gastric secretions were collected from the stomachs of rats with ligated cardia and pylorus and from the explanted gastric flaps of male rats. Explantation of gastric flaps in male rats results in atrophy of the superficial elements of the gastric glands, obliteration of glandular ducts by overgrowth of cuboidal surface epithelium, and fibrosis and superficial ulceration of the explanted mucosa.

The absence of all glandular components of gastric juice from the secretion of the explants, as previously reported by other workers. was confirmed. This was true of HCl, pepsin, ‘cathepsin’ and ‘glandular mucoprotein’ and their electrophoretic correlates, components P and M₁, as well as of the cathodic component X_2. Conversely, the presence of gastric mucoproteose and, on paper electrophoresis, the corresponding electrophoretic band M₃, confirms the surface epithelial origin of these materials. The electrophoretic patterns of secretions from explanted gastric mucosa are similar to those observed in gastric juices of patients with protein-losing gastropathies in that they contain a serum albumin-like component which stains heavily with amido black 10B and SF light green stains, but not with PAS. The presence of serum protein-like materials in explant secretions is not due to an admixture of blood, but is probably due to transudation of serum proteins through the atrophic mucosa, or exudation of serum from superficial ulcerations which have developed in the explanted mucosa, or to both of these factors.