A HISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF HUMAN ALIMENTARY TRACT MUCOSUBSTANCES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE .I. NORMAL AND TUMOURS

The histochemical characteristics of the mucosubstances of the normal tissue, benign polyps and carcinomas of the human alimentary tract have been investigated using both empirical and modern histochemical techniques. Normal oesophageal epithelium has been found not to secrete any mucosubstance. The neutral mucosubstance of the stomach is elaborated by the surface epithelium, foveolar cells, cardiac and gastric glands. Mucous neck cells secrete both sialo-and sulphomucins. Foveolar cells and surface epithelium contribute to the amount of sialomucin formed by the stomach while the deep foveolar cells secrete a small amount of sulphomucin. Small intestinal goblet cells contain an acid non-sulphated mucosubstance which is partially resistant to sialidase. Colonic and rectal goblet cells secrete an acid non-sulphated sialidase resistant mucosubstance and a sulphomucin. Sulphomucins are more prevalent in the colon than in the rectum. It has been found that sulphomucins increase in larger polyps and well differentiated carcinomatous tissue, whereas sialomucins prevail in moderately differentiated and undifferentiated carcinomas. The acid non-sulphated mucosubstance in malignant tissue has been found to be a sialomucin. Mucosubstance in the secondary deposits in lymph nodes has been shown to be similar to the main type of mucosubstance in the primary tumour. It is suggested that these findings may be of help in diagnosing carcinomas of the alimentary tract. © 1969, The British Empire Cancer Campaign for Research. All rights reserved.