Ciliated gastric cells: a study of their phenotypic characteristics.

Ciliated cells are found in the basal segments of antral glands whose superficial segments have undergone intestinal metaplasia. The affected cells resemble antral rather than metaplastic intestinal cells. This impression is supported by the immunohistochemical demonstration of pepsinogen group II production and ultrastructural demonstration of pepsinogen granules in the involved segments. Abnormal ciliogenesis in these cells resembles a possibly reversible change in bronchial epithelium that accompanies stasis of secretion and chronic inflammation. Affected antral cells show an evidence of decreased mitotic activity, but the multiplicity of cilia in each affected cell suggests that they stem from the continuing propagation of centriole-basal bodies.