Barrett's origins from gastric mucosa

What is it about?

The origins of Barrett's oesophagus, a metaplastic condition in humans, is of great debate with many theories being espoused. Dogma states that Barrett's originates from the native squamous oesophagus which undergoes an intestinal metaplasia. In this paper we demonstrate that not only do Barrett's glands typically contain gastric cell lineages, they follow the same stem cell architecture, cell proliferation dynamics and gene expression distributions of gastric glands from the pylorus.

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Why is it important?

That the assumption that Barrett's comes from the squamous oesophagus may be incorrect and any theory must explain the presence of gastric cell lineages. We have also shown that bidirectional migration from a neck or isthmus is evident in Barrett's glands much like gastric glands. Furthermore, gastric and intestinal cell lineages in Barrett's glands are clonal i.e have a common cell of origin.