Autoantibodies in simple atrophic gastritis

Abstract

The authors have examined a group of 47 patients who had been found to have chronic gastritis, in nine superficial and in 38 atrophic.Patients with pernicious anaemia were excluded and in only two was there a doubtful family history of pernicious anaemia.A relatively high incidence of autoantibodies to the parietal cells of the stomach was found.In no case, however, were there antibodies to intrinsic factor, though these were detected in nearly 60% of patients with pernicious anaemia.Interesting correlations were found between the parietal cell antibodies and such factors as the degree of loss of parietal cells, the severity of the gastric secretory defect, and the presence of thyroid antibodies.Recent work has shown that the majority of adult patients with Addisonian pernicious anaemia have autoantibodies in their blood reacting specifically with the parietal cells of the gastric mucosa (Irvine, Davies, Delamore, and Williams, 1962; Taylor, Roitt, Doniach, Couchman, and Shapland, 1962; Markson and Moore, 1962b).Autoantibodies against gastric intrinsic factor itself have been demonstrated in the blood of 40% of patients with pernicious anaemia by a test in vivo (Taylor, 1959a; Schwartz, 1960), and by an electrophoretic retention method in vitro (Jeffries, Hoskins, and Sleisenger, 1962; Taylor et al., 1962).Recently new methods in vitro for the detection of antibodies to intrinsic factor have been introduced by Abels, Bouma, Jansz, Woldring, Bakker, and Nieweg (1963) and Ardeman and Chanarin (1963).The latter reported finding such antibodies in 57 % of a group of patients with pernicious anaemia and this has been confirmed by Roitt, Doniach, and Shapland (1964).That there may be a connexion between gastritis and thyroiditis is suggested by the finding of pernicious anaemia and hypothyroidism (atrophic thyroiditis) in the same patient, first described by Charcot in 1881 (Tudhope and Wilson, 1960, 1962;