Abstract

AIMS--To investigate the immunohistochemical expression and the serum concentrations of pepsinogen I and II in different histological types of gastric cancer as compared with other gastric disorders. METHODS--Formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded tissue specimens of 38 gastric cancers obtained from surgical cases were used for the immunohistochemical studies performed with the avidin-biotin complex method using monoclonal antibodies against purified pepsinogen I and II. Pepsinogen concentrations from serum obtained from the above patients, from patients with various other gastric disorders, and from normal controls were measured with a rapid non-radioactive one step enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS--Eight of 38 (21%) and seven of 38 (18%) gastric carcinomas showed immunoreactivity to pepsinogen I and pepsinogen II, respectively, without any correlation to histological classification or differentiation. Decreased pepsinogen I concentrations and low pepsinogen I:II ratios were found specifically in cases of gastric carcinoma and polyp, in good accordance with the immunohistochemical results. CONCLUSIONS--Low serum pepsinogen I concentrations and a low pepsinogen I:II ratio are predictive of gastric neoplasia, correlating with low tissue immunoreactivity to monoclonal antibodies raised against pepsinogen I and II. For mass screening of gastric disease including carcinoma, ELISA using a one step immunoassay performed in the present study is a rapid and reliable non-radioactive method of detecting serum pepsinogen. In addition, immunohistochemical studies showed that pepsinogen production may be increased or diminished as a result of tumour histogenesis, depending on the area of origin and the processes of cell transformation and dedifferentiation.