Pernicious Anaemia

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Part 1

The human stomach is vulnerable to a number of infections. One of such infections is pernicious anaemia.  The latter is part of the chronic atrophic gastritis complication that may attack a particular organ in the body. It is also vital to mention that the latter is an autoimmune disease that targets a specific part of the body (Iwamoto et al., 2012). In most instances, the organ complication features itself in form of gastric atrophy. This implies that the stomach tends to waste itself away when a patient is attacked by the disease. In addition, the patient’s stomach also receives inflammatory cells. One of the most notable symptoms of this disease is the self-generation of strange immune system through antibodies that eventually spread out to different parts of the available proteins.  The parietal cells are also pumped using protons alongside other intrinsic activities that take place.

Vitamin B12 is a vital component in the human diet. For patients suffering from this disease, this classification of vitamin is gradually absorbed by several intrinsic factors (Alderuccio et al., 2002). As a matter of fact, red blood cells can hardly be maturated in the absence of vitamin B12. After the absorption process, a patient is left without adequate blood in the body system. This explains why anaemic conditions are prevalent among individuals diagnosed with the stomach complication (Field et al., 2005).

Gastric glands in the stomach contain the parietal cells. They play the role of producing  the hydrochloric acidic component which is a vital chemical in the early phase of digestion that takes place in the stomach.  Besides, a proton pump enzyme  referred to as H+/K+- ATPase generates gastric acid. This enzyme is made up of two subunits namely 60-90 kDa, glycosylated-β and 95 kDa-α. The subunits potentially react with the proton pump. During the diagnosis process of this stomach complication, the response generated by the antibodies is a major diagnostic tool.

Part 2

Patient serum samples were used to test antibodies in this exercise. The main purpose of the experiment was to examine whether the gastric proton pump would react with anyone of them. From this test, it was possible to undertake a diagnostic test for pernicious anaemia.

Two unique methods were employed to scrutinize whether the serum samples were loaded with the anti-proton pump antibodies. In the third particle, an SDS- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis process was used to separately secure protein  samples derived from the stomach of a mouse. Thereafter, the nitrocellulose membrane served as a temporary storage for the proteins. In the fourth practical, gastric proteins were taken through the process of Western blotting. In order to execute this procedure, sera from different categories of patients were used. In other words, even those who had not been diagnosed with pernicious anaemia were part of the experiment. It was also necessary to understand the various cell types present in the stomach of a mouse. Hence, both eosin and haematoxylin were used to stain some regions of the stomach. This experimental procedure was carried out in the third practical.  Both the human and mouse’s stomach structures were found to be similar to each other. In addition, the same amount of mouse protein reacted with the anti-proton pump antibodies.

The staining process of the mouse stomach through immuno-peroxidase staining was carried out in the fourth practical. On the same note, the sera used were obtained from patients across the board.

References

Alderuccio, F, Sentry, J, Marshall, A, Biondo, M, & Toh, B 2002, 'Animal Models of Human Disease: Experimental Autoimmune Gastritis—A Model for Autoimmune Gastritis and Pernicious Anemia', Clinical Immunology, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 48-49.

Field, J, Biondo, M, Murphy, K, Alderuccio, F, & Toh, B 2005, 'Experimental Autoimmune Gastritis: Mouse Models Of Human Organ-specific Autoimmune Disease', International Reviews Of Immunology, vol. 24, no. 1/2, pp. 93-110.

Iwamoto, S, Kido, M, Aoki, N, Nishiura, H, Maruoka, R, Ikeda, A, Okazaki, T, Chiba, T, & Watanabe, N 2012, 'IFN-γ is reciprocally involved in the concurrent development of organ-specific autoimmunity in the liver and stomach', Autoimmunity, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 186-198.