[Recent advances in research on the intestinal metaplasia of the stomach]

Intestinal metaplasia of the stomach is classified into two types, complete and incomplete, by enzymatical, mucin histochemical and histological differences. Complete type resembles the small intestine while incomplete type does not. But, even complete type differs from the small intestine from the point of cytological observations. Vascular structures of the metaplastic mucosa are different from those in the mucosae of stomach, small and large intestines. Focal intestinal metaplasia can be induced in rats by a gastric carcinogen, N-propyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine or regeneration after ulceration with 0.5 NaOH. There is no solid evidence that intestinal metaplasia is a precancerous change of the stomach. However, the patients with extensive intestinal metaplasia of the stomach belong to the high risk group for the gastric cancer. Therefore, careful follow-up studies are needed for these patients using endoscopy by dye-staining method.