CHANGES IN PARIETAL AND MUCOUS CELL MASS IN THE GASTRIC-MUCOSA OF NORMAL SUBJECTS WITH AGE - A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY

Whether or not the gastric mucosa undergoes significant changes in nor mal aging subjects is still open to debate. In 51 subjects undergoing endoscopy and lacking any significant endoscopic or histologic modific ation we evaluated mucosal thickness, gland number, numbers of parieta l, chief and mucous cells at the fundus and of mucopeptic cells at the antrum, with a morphometric method, subgrouping the patients accordin g to their age class. Our findings demonstrate that the number of pari etal cells tends to increase with age and, on the other hand, the numb er of mucous cells is reduced in elderly subjects (p < 0.05). When con sidering the parietal-to-mucous cell ratio, this is significantly incr eased (p = 0.0005) with age. Acid secretion being an offensive factor and mucus a fundamental component of the gastric mucosal barrier, thes e findings suggest an increased susceptibility of the gastric mucosa t o damage in the elderly.