Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is associated with gastritis and marked infiltration of the gastric mucosa by several cytokines secreting inflammatory cells. Different clinical forms of the infection may reflect distinctive patterns of cytokine expression. IL-17, IL-21, IL-22 and IL-23 have been reported to be involved in H. pylori-induced gastric mucosal inflammation, but the details and relationship to different patterns of inflammation and virulence factors remain unclear. Total RNA was extracted from gastric biopsies of 48 H. pylori-infected patients and 38 H. pylori-negative patients. Mucosal IL-21 mRNA expression level in H. pylori-infected and non-infected gastric biopsies was determined by real-time PCR. Presence of vacA (vacuolating cytotoxin A) and cagA (cytotoxin associated gene A) virulence factors were evaluated using PCR. IL-21 mRNA expression was significantly more in biopsies of H. pylori-infected patients compared to H. pylori-uninfected patients and the mucosal IL-21 mRNA level is positively correlated with the grade of chronic inflammation. There was no association between virulence factors and IL-21 mRNA expression. In conclusions, we believe that IL-21 might be involved in the pathogenesis of H. pylori and might be an index of the severity of chronic gastritis.

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