Correlation between Tight Junction and Experimental Gastric Precancerous Lesion in Rats

Objective To explore the relation between tight junction of gastric mucosa epithelial and experimental gastric precancerous lesion.Methods Different degrees of gastric precancerous lesion in rats were induced by adminstering 40 μg/mL or 60 μg/mL N methyl N′ nitro N nitrosoguanidine(MNNG)in drinking water.Nine weeks and 31 weeks after the experimental,the pathological changes of gastric mucosa and tight junction were observed and compared with normal rats.Results Accompaning with the extension of MNNG exposure time and the increase of MNNG concentration,the injury index of gastric mucosa and the extent of pathological changes including atrophy,intestinal metaplasia and gastric epithelial dysplasia,etc.,persistently increased;tight junctions of gastric mucosa epithelials decreased and gastric epithelials gaps increased.In model rats,which were all significantly worse than those in normal rats( P 0 05),the injury degrees of gastric mucosa epithelial was positively correlated with the degrees of gastric precancerous lesion( P 0 05).Conclusions It suggests that the tight junction of gastric mucosa barrier play a key role in pathogenesis of gastric precancerour lesion.It also indicates that the reduction of gaps between epithelials and the protection of gastric mucosa barrier might have great signifiicance in reversing gastric precancerour lesion and in treatment of gastric carcinoma. China J Cancer Prev Treat,2003,10(3):259-262