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Enzyme and ultrastructural characteristics of esophageal columnar epithelium

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Abstract

A unique columnar epithelium with elaborate microvilli, secretory granules, and the inability to absorb lipid lines the distal esophagus in many patients with midesophageal stricture. We studied this epithelium, obtained from 3 patients with midesophageal stricture and 1 with an esophageal (Barrett's) ulcer, by electron microscopy, enzyme histochemistry, and specific disaccharidase assay in an attempt to clarify its nature and derivation. Our findings show that the tissue has uniform ultrastructural characteristics, lacks disaccharidase activity, and is histochemically dissimilar from small-intestinal and gastric fundic epithelium. The dissociation of structural and functional characteristics suggests a metaplastic derivation of this tissue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastroenterology Division, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah Medical Center, 50 North Medical Drive, 84112, Salt Lake City, Utah

    M. M. Berenson MD, J. J. Herbst MD & J. W. Freston MD, PhD

  2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah Medical Center, 50 North Medical Drive, 84112, Salt Lake City, Utah

    M. M. Berenson MD, J. J. Herbst MD & J. W. Freston MD, PhD

Authors
  1. M. M. Berenson MD
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  2. J. J. Herbst MD
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  3. J. W. Freston MD, PhD
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Additional information

An abstract of this report was published in Clinical Research (21.258, 1973). Dr. Freston is a Burroughs Wellcome Scholar.

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Berenson, M.M., Herbst, J.J. & Freston, J.W. Enzyme and ultrastructural characteristics of esophageal columnar epithelium. Digest Dis Sci 19, 895–907 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01076212

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