IMMUNOPHENOTIPIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
BARRETT’S OESOPHAGUS AND INTESTINAL METAPLASIA OF CARDIAL, ANTRAL AND BODY OF
THE STOMACH EPITHELIA
Ivan Jovanović1, Tomica Milosavljević1,
Marjan Micev2, Miloš Bjelović2, Predrag Peško2
Institut za bolesti digestivnog sistema,
1Klinika za gastroenterologiju i
hepatologiju,
2Prva hirurška klinika, Klinički centar Srbije, Beograd
SUMMARY
It is currently unclear wheather intestinal metaplasia at the
esophagogastric junction and in the distal esophagus represent a continuum of
the same underlying disease process, i.e. gastroesophageal reflux, or constitute
different entities with different pathogenesis. We undertook the present study:
a) to evaluate the expression of CK7 and CK20 in intestinal metaplasia of the
gastric cardia and to compare the findings with those in patients with Barrett’s
esophagus and intestinal metaplasia of the gastric corpus and antrum mucosa; and
b) to evaluate the immunophenotype of non-intestinalized cardiac mucosa and to
compare it with that of normal gastric epithelium. We studied the expression of
CK7 and CK20 on n=110 cases, all of the collected from the files of Institute of
digestive diseases , University Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade. We observed
an immunophenotype characteristic for cases with long segment Barrett’s
esophagus. Intestinal metaplasia of the gastric cardia expressed the
immunophenotype seen in IM of the gastric mucosa in 93.3% (14/15) of the cases.
We conclude that the expression of cytokeratins 7 and 20 can be used to
distinguish the origin of IM of the gastroesophageal junction. The CK7/20
immunophenotype of intestinal metaplasia in the gastric cardia closely resembles
that of the IM in the gastric antrum and corpus and is different from IM in
long-segment Barrett’s esophagus.
Key words: Cytokeratins, intestinal metaplasia, Barrett's esophagus,
cardia