title: Detection of pepsinogen in the neonatal lung and stomach by immunohistochemistry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evaluate the hypothesis that the same pepsinogen C molecule produced in the stomach is also produced by the lung.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pulmonary and gastric tissues collected postmortem were immunohistochemically stained for pepsinogen C and pepsinogen A.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixteen patients with diverse causes of death were evaluated. Gestational age at birth ranged between 21 and 37 weeks. Pepsinogen A was detected in 12 of the 13 stomach sections, mainly in the chief cells, but not in any lung sections. Pepsinogen C was detected in all stomach sections in chief and mucus cells and in 9 of the 16 lung sections, mainly in type II pneumocytes. Pepsinogen C was not detected in the 3 lung cases with a gestational age <23 weeks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The same pepsinogen C molecule is produced in the stomach and in the lung. These findings potentially affect previous study results that used an enzymatic pepsin detection assay to evaluate for and associate gastroesophageal reflux disease with other morbidities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA. melabiad@uthsc.edu
authors.forename: Mohamad T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Elabiad
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007223:Infant; D008168:Lung / Q000737:chemistry*; D008297:Male; D010434:Pepsin A / Q000032:analysis; D020116:Pepsinogen A / Q000032:analysis*; D020115:Pepsinogen C / Q000032:analysis*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013270:Stomach / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D020115:Pepsinogen C; D020116:Pepsinogen A; D010434:Pepsin A