Description of the normal gastric mucosa in anatomy education: How many leukocytes are acceptable?

Textbooks covering normal human histology illustrate an allegedly normal gastric mucosa containing significant infiltrates of mononuclear cells in the lamina propria. This standard description seems to conflict with the pathologist's criterion for normality, which specifies only a few or a complete absence of inflammatory cells. Eventually, both anatomists and pathologists face the dilemma: how much infiltrate should their students and medical colleagues be told is acceptable for the gastric mucosa to be classified as normal? Summarizing the suggestions of experts in gastroenterology and our own experience, a simple approach could be to accept no more than five mononuclear and plasma cells per high power field as normal (400-fold magnification with a field area of 0.24 mm(2)). The divergence of views on this topic illustrates the need for anatomists and pathologists to find a consensus about the definition of "normal" tissues.