Immunohistological phenotyping of the stomach infiltrating lymphocytes in chronic gastritis.

Subsets of lymphocytes infiltrating the gastric mucosa were phenotyped by their surface antigens in biopsies of 30 patients with chronic gastritis (12 with superficial, 9 with atrophic gastritis and 9 with gastric atrophy) and 10 controls. Using direct and indirect immunofluorescent staining, monoclonal antibodies OKT3, OKT4, OKT8, OKB7, antiLeu11b and anti-IL-2 receptor were employed to detect T cell subsets, B cells, NK cells and activated cells. Most of the infiltrating lymphocytes were T cells expressing the CD4 phenotype. B cell proportions were found to increase in relation to the severity of the gastric lesion. IL-2 receptor positive cells were significantly increased in superficial gastritis. These findings indicate an involvement of T cells in the pathogenesis of chronic gastritis. Furthermore, the predominance of CD4 positive cells together with the increase of B cells parallel to the severity of the gastric lesion possibly support the concept of a T-B cooperation leading to tissue damage.