[Surface gastritis. Immunoglobulins and lysozyme. The border zone between physiology and pathology]

We examined the infiltration in chronic superficial gastritis immunohistochemically on the contents of IgA-, IgG- and IgM-containing plasma cells and on lysozyme and compared the results on the one hand with those of histologically normal gastric mucosa and on the other side with those of the inflammation at the ulcus border. Not as immunology-related reactions of the gut, one can see the chronic superficial gastritis as a stronger and topographically different variant of the normal reaction of the stomach. It shows the flowing threshold between physiological and accentuated defense and pathological exaggeration.