Fig 6. 93W4506 Esophagus-stomach junction.
At the junction of the esophagus with the stomach, the stratified
squamous epithelium of the esophagus ends abruptly, and the
simple columnar epithelium of the stomach mucosa begins. The
arrowhead shows the junction of them. The surface of the
stomach contains pale-stained surface mucous cells (SMC).
The surface of the stomach also contains numerous and
relatively deep depressions called gastric pits (GP) that are
formed by surface mucous cells. Esophageal cardiac glands
(ECG) are named for their similarity to the cardiac glands of the
stomach. They are present in the terminal part of the
esophagus and occur in the lamina propria of the mucosa.
This slide is taken from a mammal but not human, hence the
histological features of its gastric glands are somewhat unlike
human's. The gastric glands (GG) of this species contains
abundant mucous cells (MC) and parietal cells (PC).