Expression of cytokines and monosaccharide transporters in the duodenal mucosa of patients with gastrointestinal symptoms in rural Thailand.

ABSTRACT

Levels of cytokines and GLUT family monosaccharide transporters in the duodenal mucosa were examined in patients from Nong Khai, Thailand, who had underwent gastroscopy because of gastrointestinal problems. Duodenal biopsy specimens were collected from a total of 33 patients (24 males and 9 females, 45.0 +/- 13.5 years old). Ten patients had present or recent intestinal helminth infections, including strongyloidiasis, taeniasis or ascariasis (group A), 7 were urease-test positive, indicating Helicobacter pylori infection (group B), and 16 had neither helminth infections nor urea-test positivity (group C). Total RNA was extracted from the biopsied specimens and a semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed. The positivities for IL-13, IL-5 and IFN-gamma mRNA expressions in the patients were 24.2, 60.6 and 100%, respectively, with the highest IL-13 and IL-5 positivities in group A, followed by group C and B. The IL-5 positive rate was significantly higher among patients with high peripheral blood eosinophil counts (> 4%) than in patients with low peripheral blood eosinophil counts. GLUT-1 and GLUT-5 were detectable in all the patients. Although GLUT-1 expressions did not differ among groups A, B and C. GLUT-5 expressions were significantly lower in group B than in group C. These results indicate that helminth and H. pylori infections result in different immunopathological responses in the duodenal mucosa, lower expressions of type 2 cytokines and monosaccharide transporters in H. pylori infections than in helminth infections.