A scanning electron microscopic study of normal human oxyntic mucosa using blunt dissection and freeze fracture.

Biopsies from the fundic mucosa of healthy volunteers were examined by scanning electron microscopy following blunt dissection and freeze fracture. The mucosal surface exhibited a cobblestone appearance. With increased magnification, microvilli could be demonstrated on the luminal surface of individual surface cells. Blunt dissection of the gastric mucosa revealed tubular gastric pits descending from the surface until they opened into branched tubular gastric glands. The gastric glands are irregular in outline due to the knoblike projections of individual parietal cells. The internal structure of the component cells also was examined with the scanning electron microscope following freeze fracture. Mucous granules were observed in the apical portion of surface epithelial cells. Lumina of parietal cell canaliculi were found to be continuous with the lumen of the gastric glands. Pepsinogen granules could be seen throughout the cytoplasm of chief cells. The blunt dissection-freeze fracture technique utilizing the scanning electron microscope allows, for the first time, a three-dimensional view of human gastric mucosa, including the gastric pits and glands as well as some of the internal architecture of component cells.