Figure 18.

Sulfasalazine inhibits metaplasia development in the absence of inflammation. (A) Diagram of drug treatments. A parietal cell toxic drug (DMP-777) was administered to C57BL/6J mice for 10 days to induce acute gastric damage. Mice were treated with 10 mg of sulfasalazine per day, 2 days before and throughout DMP-777 administration. Mice were killed 2 hours after the final dose of DMP-777, and stomachs from DMP-777–treated (n = 5) and DMP-777 + sulfasalazine–treated (n = 5) mice were harvested for histologic analysis. (B) Immunofluorescence staining for parietal cell marker H+/K+-ATPase (red), mucus granule marker GSII lectin (green), and zymogenic granule marker GIF (blue). Scale bars: 100 μm. Magnified inset of chief cell region (right). (C) Quantification of parietal cells as determined by number of H+/K+-ATPase–positive (red) cells per 20× objective field. (D) Quantification of GSII (green) and GIF (blue) dual-positive (SPEM) cells per 20× objective field (P = .0002∗∗∗). Statistical significance was determined by unpaired Student t test.