Sites of carbonic anhydrase in avian gastric mucosa identified by electron microscope autoradiography

Carbonic anhydrase was localized at the ultrastructural level by autoradiography of [3H]acetazolamide in quail gastric mucosa. Grains were associated predominantly with mucin granules at the apical end of surface mucosal cells. Secreted mucin was also labeled. Oxynticopeptic cells of the multilobular glands were not labeled. The pH of fluid secreted by was 7.0-7.4 compared with a pH of 1.3-1.8 of freshly secreted fluid in the gastric lumen. The results of this study suggest that surface mucosal cells, which are strikingly similar in birds, amphibians, and mammals, are the site of acid secretion in the vertebrate stomach.