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Early development of human gastric H,K-adenosine triphosphatase
L Grahnquist1, T Ruuska, Y Finkel
1Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet, Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
Insights
Gastric acid secretion in neonates develops with age, with higher H,K-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) expression in males. This enzyme
Area of Science:
- Neonatal physiology
- Gastroenterology
- Biochemistry
Background:
- Early development of gastric acid secretion in human neonates is poorly understood.
- Gastric H,K-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) plays a crucial role in acid production.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the early developmental expression of gastric H,K-ATPase in human neonates.
- To correlate H,K-ATPase expression with gestational age, postnatal age, and gender.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of gastric biopsy specimens from 88 neonates (25-42 weeks gestation).
- Western blot analysis to quantify gastric H,K-ATPase protein expression.
- Comparison of enzyme levels with clinical factors, diseases, and endoscopic findings.
Main Results:
- Gastric H,K-ATPase expression significantly increases with gestational and postnatal age.
- Male neonates exhibited higher H,K-ATPase expression than females, adjusted for age.
- Clinical factors and treatments did not significantly correlate with H,K-ATPase levels when controlling for age.
Conclusions:
- Human gastric H,K-ATPase is expressed from 25 weeks gestation and increases with age.
- Neonatal susceptibility to gastric lesions may not be directly related to H,K-ATPase levels.
- Further research into the ontogeny of neonatal gastric mucosal defense mechanisms is recommended.
Background:
Little is known about the early development of the gastric acid secretion in human neonates. The purpose of this study was to examine the early development of gastric H,K-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) by analyzing human gastric biopsy specimens.
Methods:
Eighty-eight neonates from week 25 to week 42 of gestation who were treated in a neonatal intensive care unit underwent gastroscopy with biopsy specimens obtained from the corpus. The expression of gastric H,K-ATPase protein in the gastric biopsy specimens was assessed by Western blot analysis, using an antibody directed against the gastric H,K-ATPase. The amount of H,K-ATPase expressed was compared with age, gender, clinical factors, diseases, and the macroscopic and histologic findings at endoscopy.
Results:
The expression of human gastric H,K-ATPase increased significantly with gestational age. There was a significant increase in the expression of gastric H,K-ATPase during the first 82 days after birth. Boys had a significantly higher expression of gastric H,K-ATPase than girls did, when it was adjusted for gestational and postnatal age. Neither the clinical features nor treatments showed significant correlations with the expression of human gastric H,K-ATPase when controlling for gestational and postnatal age.
Conclusions:
This study shows that human gastric H,K-ATPase is expressed from week 25 of gestation, which agrees with earlier findings of gastric pH in preterm infants. The amount of enzyme expressed increases with gestational and postnatal age. The authors speculate that the susceptibility to gastric lesions seen in neonates is not related to the amount of H,K-ATPase. However, studies elucidating the ontogeny of gastric mucosal defense mechanisms are warranted.