Surfactant‐like Material in the Antral Gastric Mucosa of Children

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Summary It has been proposed that the hydrophobicity of the gastric mucosa is due to surfactant‐like material (SLM), mainly composed of phospholipid, adsorbed to the mucosal surface. Biochemical and physiological studies have been performed in different mammals but morphological data on children are lacking. In the present work, the presence of SLM on the antral gastric mucosa of children has been studied by electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that SLM is present and shows two different forms, lamellar bodies and lamellar layers. In the mucosae without endoscopic, histologic, and ultra structural alterations we have found SLM when the tannic acid method has been used but not when the tissue has been fixed only in glutaraldehyde. Our results suggest that in children with ultrastuctural alterations of the epithelium, the amount of gastric SLM is increased in respect to children with a normal mucosa and that the amount of SLM on the surface of the gastric antral mucosa is modified in pathologic conditions.

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