An Unusual Intimate Relationship between Endocrine Cells and Other Types of Epithelial Cells in the Human Stomach

The fine structure of human (1-4) and other mammalian (3, 5-12) gastric endocrine cells ("argyrophile," "argentaffin," "enterochromaffin," "pale," "clear," "endocrine-like") has been described . This report describes an unusual morphological and cytochernical relationship observed between human gastric endocrine cells and other types of gastric epithelial cells . The endocrine cells are frequently "embedded" within other epithelial cells and the apposing plasmalemmae exhibit an exceptionally high ATPase activity as demonstrated by cytochemistry .