Oxyntic glands were tightly packed long tubular structures, whereas the cardiac and pyloric glands were branched, convoluted and less dense, as observed by Meulengracht (1935) in pigs. human. Unlike the enteroendocrine of the small intestine, most gastric EEC did Raphin1 Raphin1 not contain colocalised hormones. This is similar to human and other species. We conclude that the pig stomach has substantial similarity to human, except that the pig has a protective lining at its entrance that may reflect the difference between a pig diet with hard abrasive Raphin1 components and the soft foods consumed by humans. (point of arrow is on the torus). The arrows next to Antrum indicate the extent of the antrum along the lesser curvature. Note that the antrum extends to the collar of stratified squamous epithelium that surrounds to esophageal entry to the stomach. Open in a separate window Fig. 2 Histological appearance of the pig gastric mucosa stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and diagram of the pig stomach indicating the regions sampled for histological analysis (f). The fundus (a), including the fundic diverticulum (d), was lined with cardiac glands that had prominent gastric pits lined with mucus cells (circled). A collar of thick non-keratinised stratified squamous epithelium surrounded the esophageal entrance (asterisks mark dermal papillae) that continued as the esophageal groove (b, c). The antrum and pylorus (h-j) were lined by an epithelium characterised by branched glands (examples circled). Note that the full thickness of the mucosa is not shown for thicker regions of mucosa such as the corpus. Scale bars are 100 m. The epithelial lining of the peri-esophageal Raphin1 collar and groove was stratified without a cornified surface, thus being similar to the lining of the esophagus, and was around 0.5 mm thick (Fig. 2b, ?,c).c). There were sub-epithelial papillae, similar to those seen in skin. The muscle layer was approximtely 5 mm thick near the gastroesophageal junction but was thinner towards the antrum. The fundus mucosa was about 0.5 mm thick and consisted of cardiac glands (Fig. 2a). These were branched glands with mucous cells lining the parts near the gastric lumen, while the deeper branches were lined with a simple columnar epithelium. The fundic diverticulum formed a deep distendable pocket with a narrow entrance, adjacent to the esophago-gastric junction. The mucosal lining of the diverticulum was composed of cardiac glands, similar to the rest of the fundus (Fig. 2d). The mucosa of the gastric corpus consisted of closely packed straight tubular oxyntic glands. The corpus mucosa was relatively thick, being around 1.5 mm, although the muscle layer was amongst the thinnest of the regions investigated (approximately 2 mm). Pyloric glands in the antrum and pyloric regions of the pig stomach were convoluted, similar to the cardiac glands found in the pig fundus. The luminal ends of the glands were branched and dominated by mucus cells (Fig. 2k). Being around 1 mm thick, the antral and pyloric mucosa was thinner than the corpus mucosa but thicker than the fundic mucosa. The muscle was especially thick in these regions, reaching around 8 mm in the mid antrum. The is a bulging fibro-muscular structure in CLTB the pig stomach on the lesser curvature adjacent to the gastro-duodenal junction (Fig 1), and had the thickest wall structure accordingly. Morphology and Localisation of enteroendocrine cells in the pig gastric mucosa The gastric fundus, corpus, and antrum had been analyzed for ghrelin, somatostatin, 5-HT, PYY, HDC, and gastrin immunoreactivity (Fig. 3). Cells immunoreactive for every marker had been identified in every gastric regions analyzed, except that gastrin cells had been uncommon in the fundus and corpus incredibly, and PYY was unusual in every three locations. Cell thickness was quantified for every of the markers (Fig. 4), as well as the localisation of EEC inside the mucosa was driven as the percentage of EEC which were inside the submucosal, middle, or luminal thirds from the mucosa (Fig. 5). Open up in.