Clinical immunology Mucosal interleukin-21 mRNA expression level is high in patients with Helicobacter pylori and is associated with the severity of gastritis

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. Interleukin (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. The present study was launched to analyse IL-6 expression in H. pylori-infected and uninfected gastric patients and to investigate its correlation with chronic gastritis among H. pylori-infected patients. Total RNA was extracted from the gastric antrum biopsies of 48 H. pylori-infected patients and 38 H. pylori uninfected patients. Mucosal IL-21 mRNA expression level in H. pylori-infected and uninfected gastric biopsy was determined by real-time PCR. The presence of vacA (vacuolating cytotoxin A) and cagA (cytotoxin associated gene A) virulence factors were evaluated using PCR. Interleukin-21 mRNA expression was significantly high in biopsies of H. pylori-infected patients compared to H. pylori uninfected patients, and the mucosal IL-21 mRNA level was positively correlated with the grade of chronic inflammation. There was no association between virulence factors and IL-21 mRNA expression. 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.

Helicobacter pylori can be related to carotid intima-media thickness, epicardial adipose tissue thickness and serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) levels

“…By infi ltrating the gastric epithelium, HP leads to secretion of proinfl ammatory cytokines as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-8 (18).The secretion of proinfl ammatory cytokines leads to a migration primarily of neutrophilic granulocytes, then lymphocytes, plasma cells and eosinophilic granulo-cytes to the target region (19). Thus, gastritis develops because of gastric epithelial damage (20). NGAL is an acute phase protein, secreted by neutrophilic granulocytes, epithelial cells, and tubular epithelial cells (12).…”

Colic Phytotherapy in Iranian Ethnobotany: An Overview of the ffectiveness of the Most Important Native Medicinal Plants of Iran on olic Disease

“…Medicinal plants have been shown to be effective in various diseases such as inflammatory disease 35,36 , and infectious diseases 37,38 . It should be noted that infection in gastrointestinal tract is mostly due to Helicobacter pylori 39,40 which act by various mechanisms 41 . Colic may also is due ti infection or inflammation.…”

Epstein–Barr Virus and Helicobacter Pylori Co-Infection in Non-Malignant Gastroduodenal Disorders

“…IL-21 is a pleiotropic proinflammatory cytokine secreted by Th17 cells, as well as by T follicular helper cells and NK cells or Th1 cells. IL-21-deficient mice showed impaired immune cell infiltration in the gastric mucosa in response to H. pylori [35] and human studies have shown that IL-21 is produced in the gastric mucosa in response to H. pylori infection and its expression level appears to correlate with the severity of gastric inflammation [36,37]. Interestingly, IL-21 was able to directly activate gastric epithelial cells leading to the upregulation of matrix metalloprotease 1 (MMP-1) and MMP-3 on the gastric cell line AGS cells and in fibroblast-like synoviocytes [36,38], which may contribute to tissue damage.…”