Cell renewal and cancer risk of the stomach: analysis of cell proliferation kinetics in atrophic gastritis.

We examined cell proliferation kinetics of gastric mucosa in 28 patients affected by chronic atrophic gastritis by means of autohistoradiography of biopsies incubated with tritiated thymidine. The results have been compared with those obtained from 12 patients with normal gastric mucosa. In chronic atrophic gastritis, patients showed a proliferative pattern similar to controls. The remaining patients had an increased number of replicating cells together with an expansion of the proliferative compartment towards the surface of the mucosa. These results suggest that in chronic atrophic gastritis, as far as cell proliferation is concerned, two subgroups of patients with two different levels of risk of developing gastric cancer exist. The first one, showing an expansion of the proliferating area, probably is at higher risk. As a matter of fact, such an abnormality expresses an alteration of cell growth control similar to that observed in preneoplastic conditions of the colon and in gastric mucosa of animals treated with carcinogenic substances.