[Mast cells as a criterion of repair process activity in ulcerative stomach lesions]

Histochemical and morphometric examinations of mast cells were carried out in 215 patients with peptic ulcer and 23 patients with gastric carcinoma. A control group included 30 normal subjects. An increase in the number of mast cells at the edge of the scarring ulcer as compared with that in the surrounding mucous membrane was found. Slowly scarring and callous ulcers are characterized by a significant decrease in the number of mast cells in the edge of the ulcer and beyond the zone of the periulcerous process. A specific feature of carcinoma-ulcer and malignant ulcer was a local (only in the ulcer zone) decrease in the number of mast cells and disappearance of mature granulated cell forms. It is concluded that the histochemical analysis and morphometry of mast cells may be used in the evaluation of the activity of reparative processes as well as in the diagnosis of the slowly scarring ulcer, malignant ulcer, and carcinoma-ulcer.