Glandular Stomach

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The mouse stomach contains two well-defined areas, a (nonglandular) forestomach and a glandular stomach, which are separated by the limiting ridge (margo plicatus). The glandular stomach is connected to the small intestine (duodenum). The wall of the glandular stomach consists of, from inside to outside, simple columnar epithelium containing gastric glands, the lamina propria (epithelium and lamina propria form the glandular mucosa), the muscularis mucosae, the submucosa, the muscularis interna and externa (inner circular and outer longitudinal layers of smooth muscle), and the serosa. The gastric glands lined by simple columnar epithelium form deep gastric pits (foveolae) that are perpendicular to the wall of the stomach. Three types of gastric glands exist; the cardiac glands, located near the limiting ridge, contain mucous cells; the pyloric glands also contain mucous cells; the fundic glands, which make up the majority of the gastric glands, contain a variety of cells: mucous neck cells, small, basophilic chief cells, and large, round parietal cells with a granular eosinophilic cytoplasm.

The 4X and 10X micrographs show, in increasing detail, the glandular mucosa of the glandular stomach separated by the limiting ridge from the stratified squamous epithelium of the forestomach. The 20X and 40X micrographs depict the various cells present in the fundic glands, showing both the upper parts (with the opening of a gastric pit) and the lower parts (with a fundus (base) of a gland) of these gastric glands.