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Numerous nerve fibers containing various neuropeptides are found in gastric mucosa. They play an important role not only in regulation of gastric secretion, motility and microcirculation but also in regeneration and differentiation of gastric mucosa. These nerve fibers are reduced in chronic atrophic gastritis which is considered a lesion closely related to carcinogenesis. We investigated the effect of gastric gastric mucosal denervation (vagotomy) on gastric carcinogenesis by using two experimental rat models in which chronic atrophic gastritis is induced by duodenogastric reflux. At first, following administration of MNNG, vagotomy with duodenogastric reflux enhanced gastric carcinogenesis compared to reflux only. At second, in the model of gastric remnant in which no carcinogenic agent was given, both B-I and B-II gastrectomy with vagotomy showed an increase of carcinoma and/or adenoma at the anastomotic site compared to those without vagotomy. Moreover, in vagotomized groups, there were an increase of labeling index of PCNA positive cells in gastric mucosa and a marked reduction of intramucosal neutral mucin in PAS-Alcian blue staining. These results indicate that the lack of gastric mucosal innervation not only induces the decrease of gastric mucosal cell function and cytoprotection but also enhances the increase of immature cell regeneration.

The surgical and liver scintigraphic findings were compared for evaluation of preoperative diagnostic value in 146 cases of gastric carcinoma. Correct diagnosis was found in 95% with a false negative rate of 2.7% and a false positive rate of 27%. In all the false negative cases, the size of all space-occupying lesions within the liver was less than 3 cm. in diameter. In view of the high percentage of correct diagnosis (95%), we believe that the preoperative liver scintigraphy is very useful clinically. Furthermore, we documented that liver metastasis is a late complication of gastric cancer and suggest that new diagnostic tools are needed to assess the presence of nodal metastasis, serosal infiltration and peritoneal dissemination.