[Immunopathology of chronic gastritis in B12-deficiency anemia]

Twenty-one patients with B12-deficiency anemia and 72 patients with independent primary chronic gastritis were examined. The patients with B12-deficiency anemia showed a considerably elevated level of circulating antibodies as regards gastric antigen. During interaction of antibodies and antigen, an increased quantity of endogenous complement was found to be consumed. Using the immunofluorescence technique antibodies to the coating cells of the stomach were detected in 47.6% of anemic patients. During gastritis associated with B12-deficiency, there was a higher level of intragastric immune complexes as compared with both normal subjects and patients with primary chronic gastritis. The characteristics of circulating immune complexes did not deviate from normal in all groups of patients. The patients with B12-deficiency anemia manifested a high degree of sensitization of T lymphocytes to gastric mucosa antigen. However, it was less pronounced than that in patients with primary chronic gastritis.