title: Proliferative abnormalities of the oesophageal epithelium of Chinese populations at high and low risk for oesophageal cancer.
abstract: Studies on the pattern of proliferation of epithelial cells from the oesophagus of 33 individuals from Linxian, a high-risk area for oesophageal cancer in China, and of 22 subjects from Jiaoxian, a low-risk area for the same cancer in China, were performed using thymidine labelling. Oesophageal biopsies were obtained during endoscopic surveys carried out in these 2 populations. A clear difference was observed between the 2 groups; the high-risk group showed cell proliferation in the upper layers of the epithelium more often than the low-risk group. No difference was found in the cell proliferation patterns of subjects with oesophagitis and those without oesophagitis in the high-risk area. This finding could suggest that the tritiated thymidine assay may be a more sensitive method to characterize the precancerous lesions of the oesophagus in high- and low-risk populations than simple histological evaluation.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002455:Cell Division; D002681:China; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D004941:Esophagitis / Q000473:pathology; D004947:Esophagus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk