Background: Gastritis is characterised as an inflammation of the gastric mucosa, the stomach's protective lining, and is divided into two categories: acute and chronic, depending on the severity of the inflammation and the disease's history. This study aims to estimate the levels of transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in gastritis patients infected with Helicobacter pylori.Material and Method: From September 2022 to June 2023, a crosssectional study was conducted in the General Hospital and at various private clinics in Balad City, Iraq. Eighty-nine samples (50 patients and 39 healthy individuals as control) were collected from 42 males and 47 females aged 15-85 years from Balad General Hospital, and private upper surgical endoscopy clinic. Blood, stool, and biopsy samples were collected from individuals suffering from complaints such as loss of appetite, weight loss, diarrhoea, vomiting, and dyspepsia.
Results:The study included 89 samples (50 gastritis patients (56.18%) and 39 control (43.82%)). Depending on the diagnosis of gastroenterologists, the gastric patients were divided into four groups: 28 (56%) were gastritis patients, 13 (26%) patients were chronic gastritis patients, 8 (16%) patients were gastritis ulcer patients, and 1 (2%) patient was gastric cancer patient. H. pylori was detected by antibody (Ab) and antigen (Ag) in the serum among all 50 patients using the one step test. Among the 50 patients, 26 (52%) showed a positive result for Ab and 24 (48%) showed a negative result, while 20 (40%) were positive and 30 (60%) were negative for Ag. In addition, this research found that the concentration of TGF-β1 and IL-18 in H. pylori-infected patients was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher than that in healthy controls.
Conclusion:IL-18 and TGF-β1 levels were elevated in the serum of people with gastritis H. pylori infection in this study as compared to the healthy groups. A correlation was found between TGF-β1 and IL-18 serum levels in relation to H. pylori and bacterial infection.