J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 85(7): 686-693, 1984

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Original article

GROUP I REPSINOGEN (PG I) IN THE SERUM AND THE URINE AFTER TOTAL GASTRECTOMY

Since the origin of group I pepsinogen (PG I) is no other than gastric mucosa, PG I has been considered to disapper in total gastrectomized patients. We, however, have found proteolytic activity in the urine of one-half of total gastrectomized patients and the activity has proven to be PG I by both gel chromatography and agar gel electrophoresis. Serum and urine PG I levels also have been determined by radioimmunoassay in 40 subjects. PG I was detected in almost all of them and the mean level of serum was 4.17ng/ml and that of urine was 32.2ng/ml. The levels had no relation to age and sex but elevated in the patients with recurrent gastric cancer after total gastrectomy.
A few possibilities can be considered as to the source of PG I after total gastrectomy, in which heterotopic gastric mucosa or gastric gland metaplasia is most possible.
An interesting result in this study was that both serum and urine PG I levels elevated in the recurrent patients. This phenomenum suggests that gastric cancer may produce PG I.

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