Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2009
Helicobacter pylori is a spiral-shaped, flagellated, microaerophilic Gram-negative bacterium that colonizes the gastric epithelium of c.50% of humans (Blaser & Berg 2001). These organisms elicit a strong immune response that does not resolve the infection; once acquired, bacteria persist for a lifetime in the absence of antibiotic treatment. All persons infected with H. pylori have gastritis and 20%–30% will develop severe disease that includes gastric and duodenal ulcers, gastric adenocarcinoma or MALT lymphoma (Covacci et al. 1999). A characteristic feature of H. pylori infection is the massive recruitment of phagocytes (particularly neutrophils) to the gastric mucosa (Allen 2000). Of interest here is the fact that H. pylori survives for years in a phagocyte-rich environment, and a growing body of data demonstrates that these organisms modulate the host inflammatory response and phagocyte function. By this mechanism H. pylori evades phagocytic killing and promotes host tissue damage.
COLONIZATION OF THE GASTRIC EPITHELIUM
Helicobacter pylori is the only microbe that survives in the hostile environment of the human stomach (Blaser & Berg 2001, Montecucco & Rappuoli 2001). Urease is a nickel-containing enzyme that is essential for colonization; ammonia generated by this enzyme buffers H. pylori as it passes through the highly acidic gastric lumen. Bacteria establish residence in the mucus layer over the epithelium; motility in this milieu is enhanced by the spiral shape of the organism and multiple polar flagella.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.