Helicobacter pylori DNA in gallbladder tissue of patients with cholelithiasis and cholecystitis

Abstract

Background: Earlier reports on the detection of H. pylori DNA in gallbladder tissue of patients with cholelithiasis and cholecystitis gave discordant results. Our aim was to detect the presence of H. pylori DNA and to determine whether a correlation can be established with the biliary diseases. Methodology: The study included a total of 68 patients 20 to 79 years of age. Fifty-three of the participants were females, of whom 33 had cholelithiasis and 20 did not. Out of the 15 male patients, 8 were had cholelithiasis and 7 did not. Gallbladder tissue specimens were taken from all patients undergoing cholecystectomy and processed immediately for histology, culture and PCR. Results: Histological examination revealed that 36 (68%) of 53 females and 9 (60%) of 15 males had cholecystitis. PCR results detected H. pylori DNA in 15 (22%) of 68 samples but no bacteria were isolated in culture. The presence of few bacteria, the geographic distribution of H. pylori strains, and the bile milieu inhibitory effect might be some of the reasons for growth failure. Conclusions: In this study although H. pylori DNA was detected by PCR in gallbladder tissue of patients with cholecystitis, a clinical correlation with biliary disease could not be established because several conditions were difficult to meet as discussed in the text.

Are Helicobacter Pylori and Other Helicobacter Species Infection Associated with Human Biliary Lithiasis? A Meta-Analysis

“…With heterogeneity ( I 2  = 69.5%, P<0.0001), the cumulative odds ratio for the sample was 2.59 (95% CI 1.21–5.55) and favored the role of H. Pylori in lithiasis cases (Figure 1). A sensitivity analysis omitting 1 study at a time and calculating the pooled ORs for the remainder of the studies showed that the two study by Yucebilgili [34] and Figura [22] might substantially influence the pooled OR. After excluding these two studies, there was no heterogeneity detected.…”

“…Four techniques including ELISA [8], [22], [28], PCR [8], [24], [25], [27]–[31], [33]–[35], [37], immunohistochemistry staining (IHC) [30], [37] and culture [27], [30], [31], [34] were utilized for identifying the presence of H. Pylori (Table 3). ELISA was performed in three studies in order to detect the H. Pylori -specific IgG in serum samples.…”

“…Notably, immunohistochemistry staining (IHC) supported the higher presence of H. Pylori in lithiasis group than controls (15.17% versus 5.95%, OR: 3.79, 95% CI: 1.43–10.04, P = 0.007). In addition, five studies utilized bile, gallbladder and biliary duct tissues for culture [27], [28], [30], [31], [34]. Unfortunately, from bile specimens, no grown spiral shaped Gram-negative bacteria could be observed by microscopy and only 3.02% (6/199) of the tissue samples from biliary lithiasis were positive for H. Pylori .…”

Presence of Helicobacter spp. DNA in the gallbladder of Egyptian patients with gallstone diseases

“…This figure agrees with 2 other studies identifying DNA of Helicobacter spp. in 22%-27.7% of gallbladder samples [15,16]. While Silva et al detected Helicobacter DNA in gallbladder tissue in 31.3% of their cases, they pointed out the possibility that H. pylori had Table 1 colonized a previously damaged epithelium [13].…”

Cholesterol gallstones

“…Moreover, the result of two different studies in Korea and Hong Kong did not find any role for Helicobacter species in the pathogenesis of biliary disease [20,21], concluding that Helicobacter infection may not play a significant role in the formation of gallstones. In addition, Neri et al [22] and Yucebilgili et al [23] found that, although H. pylori DNA was detected by PCR in gallbladder tissue of patients with cholecystitis, a clinical correlation with biliary disease could not be established.…”