ABSTRACT
The hypothesis that Helicobactermight be a risk factor for human liver diseases has arisen after the detection of Helicobacter DNA in hepatic tissue of patients with hepatobiliary diseases. Nevertheless, no explanation that justifies the presence of the bacterium in the human liver has been proposed. We evaluated the presence of Helicobacterin the liver of patients with hepatic diseases of different aetiologies. We prospectively evaluated 147 patients (106 with primary hepatic diseases and 41 with hepatic metastatic tumours) and 20 liver donors as controls. Helicobacter species were investigated in the liver by culture and specific 16S rDNA nested-polymerase chain reaction followed by sequencing. Serum and hepatic levels of representative cytokines of T regulatory cell, T helper (Th)1 and Th17 cell lineages were determined using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The data were evaluated using logistic models. Detection of Helicobacter pylori DNA in the liver was independently associated with hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus, pancreatic carcinoma and a cytokine pattern characterised by high interleukin (IL)-10, low/absent interferon-γ and decreased IL-17A concentrations (p < 10-3). The bacterial DNA was never detected in the liver of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and autoimmune hepatitis that are associated with Th1/Th17 polarisation. H. pylori may be observed in the liver of patients with certain hepatic and pancreatic diseases, but this might depend on the patient cytokine profile.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Cytokines/immunology , Helicobacter Infections/immunology , Helicobacter pylori/isolation & purification , Liver Diseases/microbiology , Liver/microbiology , Case-Control Studies , DNA, Bacterial/isolation & purification , DNA, Ribosomal/isolation & purification , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Helicobacter pylori/genetics , Immunohistochemistry , Liver Diseases/immunology , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Prospective Studies , Th1 Cells/immunology , /immunologyABSTRACT
Diferentes amostras de leishmania foram analisadas quanto à susceptibilidade in vitro ao pentostam - uma cepa de L. (V) braziliensis considerada sensível ao glucantine, três cepas (duas L. (V) braziliensis e uma L. (L) amazonensis) consideradas naturalmente resistentes ao glucantine, uma linhagem resitente (L. (V) guyanensis) selecionada in vitro pela exposiçäo em alta concentraçäo de droga. A elevada sensibilidade destas amostras em contraposiçäo à resistência observada para a glucantine sugere existir relaçäo entre a estrutura química e a atividade destes compostos. Estes dados indicam a necessidade de uma avaliaçäo comparativa de atividade clínica do pentostam e do glucantime no tratamento da leishamniose