Molecular fractionation of gastric mucus component by high-performance liquid chromatography: application to pig gastric mucus in vitro and to human gastric mucus collected by aspiration during gastric endoscopy.

The glycoprotein molecular composition of antral and fundic adherent mucus has been studied by high-performance liquid chromatography on a silica gel column. Preliminary assays with pig gastric mucus allowed us to demonstrate the reproducibility of the method. The mucolytic activity of pepsin on this mucus demonstrates its ability to detect degradation of its glycoprotein components. This method was applied to control the state of pig antral mucosa that has previously been used in an in vitro antacid evaluation procedure, and also study human fundic and antral mucus collected by aspiration from normal and diseased stomachs during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Different elution profiles were obtained with these samples, depending on the presence of non-degraded or degraded mucus or due to the lack of mucus on the mucosa.