aminobutyric acid(GABA) is a principal inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system(CNS). In recent years,some studies have demonstrated that GABA is also present in various peripheral tissues,including the gastrointestinal tract. GABA acts as a gut hormone in addition to its role as an enteric neurotransmitter,which involves in the transport and regulation of intracellular information in stomach. Therefore,it inhabits development and growth of gastric cancer. Glutamic acid decarboxylase(GAD) is a major GABA synthesizing enzyme. This review will narrate the relationship between GABA,GAD and gastric cancer.

Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG), a term used to describe the endoscopic appearance of gastric mucosa with a characteristic mosaic-like pattern, is characterized entities that can be associated with gastrointestinal blood loss in patients with portal hypertension. More than 65% of patients with portal hypertension from cirrhosis will develop PHG,however,it could also occur in the setting of non-cirrhotic portal hypertension. In patients with portal hypertension, the incidence of PHG was associated with severity of liver disease and the presence of both oesophageal and gastric varices. The exact etiology of PHG is not clearly defined, the diagnosis of PHG depends on endoscopy and histology, therapy of PHG is directed at lowering portal pressure by ?-blockers or shunt procedures.

Objectives This study was to evaluate GABA BR (including GABA BR1 and GABA BR2) expression in human gastric cancer. Methods Thirty randomly chosen patients with gastric cancer who underwent surgical treatment were entered into the current study. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to determine the expression of GABA BR. Results Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that the scores of GABA BR1 and GABA BR2 in human gastric cancer tissue increased apparently compared with the adjacent normal tissue(P

Objective To explore the role of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) in the pathogenesis of human gastric cancer. Methods Thirty patients with primary gastric cancers who were diagnosed and treated at our hospital were enrolled into the current study. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to check the ex-pression of GAD protein. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( RT-PCR) was performed to ex-amine the expression of GADmRNA. Then investigated the relationships among the sites of gastric cancer, depth of infiltration, and degree of differentiation, staging and lymphatic metastasis. Results Immunohisto-chemistry analysis showed that GAD expression decreased in gastric cancer tissues compared with that of ad-jacent normal tissue(P