Is there a correlation between helicobacter pylori and enterohepatic helicobacter species and gallstone cholecystitis?

Background: Cholecystitis is a common surgical condition. Recently, several authors have reported that DNA of bile tolerant Helicobacter spp. has been found in the human bile colonizing the biliary tract. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the presence of Helicobacter spp. and gallstone cholecystitis

Methods: In this case-control study, gallstones, bile, and gallbladder mucosa were collected from 25 patients without gallstone disease, 24 with acute cholecystitis, and 28 with chronic cholecystitis. The presence of Helicobacter pylori [H. pylori], Helicobacter bilis [H. bilis], Helicobacter hepaticus [H. hepaticus], and Helicobacter pullorum [H. pullorum] were investigated by polymerase chain reaction [PCR] using species-specific primers

Results: In this study, 77 subjects with acute and chronic cholecystitis and control groups with a mean age of 46.85 +/- 14.53 years, including 58 [67.25%] women and 19 [32.75%] men were included. DNA of 10 Helicobacter spp. was detected in the bile of the patients with cholecystitis including eight H. pylori and two H. bilis. However, we could not detect H. hepaticus and H. pullorum DNA in the samples. Moreover, there was an association between H. pylori and acute cholecystitis [p = 0.048], which was found to be stronger in 31-40-year-olds group [p = 0.003]

Conclusion: We found an association between the presence of H. pylori DNA and acute gallstone cholecystitis. There is not statistically significant correlation between three enterohepatic Helicobacter spp. [H. bilis, H. hepaticus, and H. pullorum] and cholelithiasis. Given the low sample size of the patients, more studies are required to clear the clinical role of Helicobacter spp. in the gallstone disease and cholecystitis

Oxalate-degrading capacities of gastrointestinal lactic acid bacteria and urinary tract stone formation

Calcium oxalate is one the most significant causes of human kidney stones. Increasing oxalate uptake results in increased urinary oxalate. Elevated urinary oxalate is one the most important causes of kidney stone formation. This study aims to evaluate oxalate-degrading capacity of lactic acid bacteria and its impact on incidence of kidney stone. This case-control study was conducted on serum, urinary, and fecal samples. The research population included a total of 200 subjects divided in two equal groups. They were selected from the patients with urinary tract stones, visiting urologist, and also normal people. The level of calcium, oxalate, and citrate in the urinary samples, parathyroid and calcium in the serum samples, and degrading activity of fecal lactobacillus strains of all the subjects were evaluated. Then, data analysis was carried out using SPSS-11.5, chi[2] test, Fisher's exact test, and analysis of variance. The results revealed that the patients had higher urinary level of oxalate and calcium, as well as higher serum level of parathyroid hormone than normal people. In contrast, urinary level of citrate was higher in normal people. In addition, there was a significant difference between the oxalate-degrading capacities of lactobacillus isolated from the patients and their normal peers. Reduction of digestive lactobacillus-related oxalate-degrading capacity and increased serum level of parathyroid hormone can cause elevated urinary level of oxalate and calcium in people with kidney stone

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin A gene as a predictive marker for different gastrodoudenal diseases

Helicobacter pylori [H. pylori] has several virulence factors such as vacA and cagA genes. Mosaicism in vacA alleles with two distinct families of vacA signal sequences [s1, s2] and two distinct families of middle region alleles [m1, m2] is reported. The aim of this study was determination of H. pylori vacA allelic types in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiyari province, Iran and their correlation with six different gastroduodenal diseases. This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 200 antral gastric biopsy specimens that were obtained from patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy in Hajar Hospital of Shahrekord. Initially, H. pylori strains were identified by rapid urease test [RUT] and ureC primers, and thereafter, we used seven specific primers for detection of vacA genotypes. Statistical analyses were used to find their relationship to gastric disorders. The frequency of the vacA alleles, s1a/m1a, s1a/m1b, s1a/m2, s1b/m1a, s1b/m1b, s1b/m2, s1c/m1a, s1c/m1b, s1c/m2, s2/m1a, s2/m1b and s2/m2 were respectively, 27[16.46%], 8[4.87%], 45[28.43%], 7[4.26%], 5[3.04%], 10[6.09%], 12[7.31%], 4[2.43%], 18[10.97%], 6[3.65%], 0 and 22[13.41%]. s1a/m2 strains were the most prevalent strains in this region and there was a considerable relationship between s1a/m1a, s1a/m2, s2/m2 and s1c/m1a with some gastric disorders. As the findings are different from other regions of the world, extended molecular epidemiologic investigations are recommended in other cities of Iran