Ciliated cells in the cardiac gland of the human stomach. Evidence of metaplastic change.

In a study on 12 Japanese patients, many ciliated cells were found in the human cardiac mucosa in association with intestinal metaplasia. Two cases were studied by electron microscopy, which revealed the presence of cilia and basal bodies in the apical portion of the mucosal cells. The ciliated cells sometimes contained prominent autophagosomes in the supranuclear region and abundant filaments in the cytoplasm, but neither mucus nor neuroendocrine granules were evident. Ciliated cells have commonly been found in human pyloric mucosa showing intestinal metaplastic changes in aged Japanese patients. In the cardiac mucosa, the incidence of ciliated cells was relatively low. Ultrastructural study revealed that the metaplastic gastric cilia were almost the same as those of respiratory cilia. The presence of ciliated cells in the adult human gastric mucosa was always associated with intestinal metaplasia; therefore our interpretation is that this is a type of metaplasia, for which we propose a new term, "ciliated metaplasia" of the stomach.