One of the morphological aspects of the gastric mucosa in metabolic syndrome is the presence of superficially active gastritis-like changes in the mucosa, metaplasia in the covering epithelium, and focal atrophic changes in the fundic glands.  In particular, it is characterized by sparse fibrous connective tissue in the surface epithelium of the components of the glandular structures in the antral area, sporadic intraepithelial lymphocytes in the interstitium, atrophic changes in MALT structures in some, and the presence of significantly reduced glandular epithelium in the interstitial stroma.