Ultrastructural observation of the gastric mucosa in chronic gastritis patients treated by traditional Chinese medicine

AIM: To demonstrate the relationship between the ultrastructural changes of the gastric mucosa and the syndrome differentiation in chronic gastritis.METHODS: Sixteen chronic gastritis patients with Piweixuhan (PXG, the cold of insufficiency syndrome of the spleen and the stomach) and fifteen chronic gastritis patients with Ganweibuhe (GBG, incoordination syndrome of the liver and the stomach) were treated with Jianpiwenwei decoction (JWD, invigorating the spleen and warming the stomach) or Shuganhewei decoction (SHD, dispersing the stagnated Liver Qi and regulating the stomach), respectively for three months. Before and after treatment, a gastroscopy was performed and the gastric mucosa was collected from the lesser curvature of the antrum of each patient. The ultrasections were observed and photographed under the JEM-100C X electron microscope.RESULTS: The common ultrastructural anomalies of the two types of chronic gastritis were the plasmacyte infiltration and the lesions of the mucosal epithelial cells, chief cells and antral mucous cells. There were obvious differences between the two types. In PXG, the predominant lesion of the chief cells was swelling of the mitochondria, while in GBG the rough endoplasmic reticulum was enlarged in the chief cells and the plasmacytes. After treatment, most cases of the ultrastructural lesions reverted to normal or improved.CONCLUSION: There was a close relationship between the ultrastructural changes of gastric mucosa and the syndrome differentiation of chronic gastritis. JWD and SHD could significantly improve the ultrastructural lesions of the gastric mucosa.