Abstract
From the morphological and enzymological investigation, the wide variation were observed in intestinal metaplasia and classified into complete and incomplete types according to its nature. To clarify the variation of the intestinal metaplasia, I investigate the proliferation kinetics of intestinal metaplasia by means of the autoradiography by 3H-thymidine and the measurement of the nuclear DNA-content by cytophotometry. From these observations, in complete intestinal metaplasia (ALP +, LAP +), the generative cell zone is located at the lower % portion of the gland. On the other hand, in incomplete intestinal metaplasia (ALP-, LAP +), the generative cell zone is enlarged. The measurement of the content of the nuclear DNA content revealed that there was few aneuploid cells in gastric intestinal metaplasia and incomplete intestinal metaplasia shows a small peak at the 4c point. I made clear that there is the difference in the rate of cell turnover between incomplete and complete type intestinal metaplasia and this evidence may be the key point to solve their nature.
