Abstract
The mucosubstance histochemistry of the gastric mucosa in pigs was studied using the Alcian blue (pH 2.5)-periodic acid-Schiff reaction (AB-PAS), high iron diamine-Alcian blue (pH 2.5) staining (HID-AB) and paradoxical concanavalin A staining (PC). The surface epithelial cells of the cardiac gland region contained a large amount of sulfomucins. The mucous neck cells contained either neutral mucins or sialomucins. In the pyloric gland, some cells contained neu-tral mucins and others sulfomucins or sialomucins. On the other hand, the cardiac gland cells, mucous neck cells and pyloric gland cells exhibited class-III reactivity by PC staining. The fact that the gastric mucosa contains a lot of sulfomucins and varied types of mucosubstances may be correlated with the digestive function of pigs, which are omnivorus animals.
