The role of vacuolation in the death of gastric epithelial
cells.
Hagen, Susan J., Shin'ichi Takahashi, and Rudite Jansons.
Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, and the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center, Boston, MA,
02215
APStracts 3:0243C, 1996.
The effect of vacuolation on survival of gastric epithelial cells was
studied in rabbit gastric glands (RGG) incubated with ammonia and
bafilomycin A1 (baf), a potent inhibitor of vacuolar ATPase activity.
In ammonia, large vacuoles formed and cell survival was reduced to
47.2 +/- 3.4% at 6 hr (59.5 +/- 3.8%, buffer). Baf added at the start
to RGG incubated with ammonia inhibited vacuole formation but did not
improve cell survival (48.7 +/- 2.8% at 6 hr). Baf added 1-2 hr after
addition of ammonia reduced the size of vacuoles but did not alter
cell survival. Cell survival was not affected by inhibiting protein
synthesis. When incubated with ammonia, parietal cells dissociated
from the gland and ruptured. After this, chief cells condensed and
formed extensive blebs that contained fragmented nuclei. We conclude
that (1) ammonia-induced vacuolation of gastric epithelial cells does
not influence cell survival, (2) ammonia facilitates necrosis in
parietal cells and apoptosis in chief cells, and (3) chief cell
survival, in some manner, may be dependent on parietal cells.
Received 7 May 1996; accepted in final form 27 June 1996.
APS Manuscript Number C244-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 21 August 1996