Detection of Helicobacter species in chronic liver disease and chronic inflammatory bowel disease

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of the 32 patients with liver diseases.

Characteristic	Patients
Females	25
Liver fibrosis grade 0	19/29 ^a
AST mean (reference range 10–35 U/L for females)	47 (range 16–119)
ALT mean (reference range 10–35 U/L for females)	51 (range 8–168)
Alkaline phosphatase mean (reference range 60–275 U/L)	366 (141–1222)
Ursodeoxycholic acid treatment	19

AST = aspartate aminotransferase; ALT = alanine aminotransferase.

^a Three liver specimens were inadequate for the assessment of fibrosis.

Table II. Positive helicobacter polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results of liver biopsy specimens and serum antibody responses studied by immunoblot (IB) for non‐pylori helicobacters in five patients with different liver diseases. The sera were first screened by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and only positive samples were further studied by IB.

Patient no.	Clinical diagnosis	EIA positive for	IB positive for	PCR positive for
1	Primary biliary cirrhosis	negative	ND	H. pylori
2	Primary biliary cirrhosis	H. bilis	negative	H. hepaticus
		H. hepaticus	negative
3	Cholestatic hepatitis of unknown etiology	negative	ND	H. pullorum
4	Chronic autoimmune hepatitis	negative	ND	H. pylori H. pullorum H. rappini
5	Autoimmune cholangitis	H. pullorum	H. bilis	negative
		H. bilis
		H. hepaticus

ND = not done.

Figure 1. PCR‐DGGE analysis of 4 Helicobacter positive liver specimens. Lanes: M(mobility)‐Ladder, DNA amplified from reference Helicobacter spp. which consists from top to the bottom of PCR products amplified from H. muridarum (CCUG 29262), H. bilis (CCUG 38995), H. pullorum (NCTC 12825), H. pylori (CCUG 17875), ‘H. rappini’ (CCUG 23435), H. hepaticus (CCUG 33637) and H. bizzozeronii (AF 53). 1: F3A (H. pullorum), F3B (H. pylori), F3C (Helicobacter sp. ‘Flexispira taxon. 8’). 2: F4 (H. pullorum). 3: F11 (H. hepaticus). 4: F17 (H. pylori).

Table III. Characteristics of six IBD patients with non‐pylori helicobacter antibodies demonstrated by immunoblot assay. In four of these patients also H. pylori antibodies were detected in the IB.

Patient	Antibodies to Helicobacter sp.	Diagnosis	Age (years)	Duration of IBD (years)	Location and behaviour of IBD
1	H. pylori, H. bilis	CD	57	9	ileum, stricturing
2	H. bilis	UC	29	19	left‐sided colitis
3	H. pylori, H. bilis	UC	34	3	left‐sided colitis
4	H. hepaticus	CD	28	10	ileum, stricturing
5	H. pylori, H. pullorum	UC	50	15	left‐sided colitis
6	H. pylori, H. pullorum	UC	38	6	pancolitis

CD = Crohn's disease; IBD = inflammatory bowel disease; UC = ulcerative colitis.