Expression of the gastric H/K-ATPase alpha-subunit in the thymus may explain the dominant role of the beta-subunit in the pathogenesis of autoimmune gastritis.

The two subunits of the gastric H/K ATPase, namely the catalytic alpha-subunit and the glycoprotein beta-subunit, are the major targets of parietal cell autoantibodies associated with human and murine autoimmune gastritis. The murine disease induced by neonatal thymectomy is T cell-mediated. We have previously shown that transgenic expression of the H/K ATPase beta-subunit gene in the thymus prevented the development of autoimmune gastritis induced by thymectomy. However, little is known of the contribution of the H/K ATPase alpha-subunit in disease development. Here, we show that (1) in contrast to the gastric H/K ATPase beta-subunit, the alpha-subunit gene is expressed in normal BALB/c thymus. (2) transgenic expression of the gastric H/K ATPase alpha-subunit gene in the thymus failed to prevent the development of autoimmune gastritis and (3) normal BALB/c and transgenic mice expressing the alpha-subunit in the thymus develop autoimmune gastritis following immunisation with purified murine gastric H/K ATPase, whereas transgenic mice expressing the beta-subunit in the thymus do not. We propose that the expression of the H/K ATPase alpha-subunit in the normal thymus may account for the predominant role of the beta-subunit in the development of autoimmune gastritis induced either by thymectomy or by immunisation with the ATPase.