ABSTRACT
Background and study aim: This study proposed to assess the relation between absolute telomere lengths (TLs) in gastric mucosa and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and study the impact of (H. pylori) eradication therapy on TLs. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on (42) subjects divided into two groups, group I: included (17) H. pylori negative cases served as control group, group II: included (25) H. pylori positive patients. Absolute TLs was measured in base pairs (bp) in gastric mucosa and analyzed by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in all groups and reevaluated in H. pylori positive patients 4 weeks after eradication therapy. Results: Prior to eradication therapy, there was highly significant shortening (P<0.001) in TLs (bp) in gastric mucosa of H. pylori positive patients compared to H. pylori negative controls. While there was highly significant elongation was observed after H. pylori eradication therapy in H. pylori positive patients (P < 0.001). There was significant negative correlation between TLs and ages of patients (P<0.001) while there was no significant relation between TLs and sex (P= 0.5) before and after eradication therapy. Conclusion: H. pylori positive patients had significantly shorter TLs than H. pylori negative controls. TLs were increased after H. pylori eradication therapy in H. pylori positive cases. This finding may indicate the importance of H. pylori eradication to avoid the development of gastric cancer by its effect on TLs