Electrophoretic analysis of acid proteolytic zymogens in mucosa surrounding gastric ulcer.

Acid proteolytic zymogens contained in biopsy specimens obtained from the area surrounding peptic ulcers of the stomach were analyzed by means of agar gel electrophoresis and compared with histopathological findings. It was demonstrated that the specimens obtained from the base of ulcer contained only slow moving protease (SMP) while mucosa located near the margin of ulcer showed the pyloric mucosal type of electrophoretic pattern and increase in distance between the margin of ulcer and the site of biopsy changed the electrophoretic pattern of specimens to the fundic mucosal type. The electrophoretic findings of acid proteolytic zymogens were found to be correlated closely to histological findings, and these changes were found to distribute in a patchy form around the ulcer. It was also found that endoscopically healed scared was covered with regenerated epithelium containing parietal and chief cells of which the electrophoretic pattern of acid proteolytic zymogens was of a fundic mucosal type.