Serum and Mucosal Cytokine Profiles in Patients with Active Helicobacter Pylori and Ischemic Heart Disease: Is There a Relationship?

Abstract

This study is designed to investigate, for the first time, circulating and gastric mucosal levels ofILl-a, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-a in patients with ischemic heart disease (IUD) and matched controls, according to the presence or absence of active Helicobacter pylori infection. Furthermore, in order to evaluate whether modified lipid profile was associated to an increased cardiovascular risk, this was determined in the same groups. Cytokine levels were measured using ELISA in 58 patients with IUD and 52 controls. Active H. pylori infection was assessed if either culture of H. pylori or rapid urease test gave a positive result. Our findings indicate increasing cytokine mucosal levels in H. pylori-positive patients compared to H. pylorinegative subjects. However, the increase was statistically significant only for IL-6 and TNF-a in the gastric mucosa of IUD patients. In H. pylori-positive controls, IL-8 mucosal levels positively correlated with both IL-la (r = 0.98; P = 0.0003) and IL-6 (r = 0.83; P = 0.03) levels. Circulating cytokine levels were comparable in IUD and healthy subjects, regardless of H. pylori status. There were no correlations between mucosal and circulating cytokine levels. Active H. pylori infection was not associated with a modified lipid profile in either controls or IUD patients, although ApoAI levels were significantly higher in H. pylori-positive controls compared to those H. pylori-negative. Taken together, the results of the present study provide evidence that active H. pylori infection may playa role as a trigger factor in the pathophysiology of IUD by inducing an inflammatory cascade concentrated on gastric mucosa. Cardiovascular diseases constitute one of the leading causes for mortality and morbidity in industrialized countries (I). In particular, ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the single biggest contributor to cardiac mortality. Major factors associated with an increased risk of IHD are well known, but not all of IHD incidence can be attributed to serum lipids, hypertension, smoking, obesity and diabetes (2). It is, therefore, important to identify additional causes ofIHD.Atherosclerosis is now generally accepted as an inflammatory disorder in the arterial wall (3). Since the first evidence reported by Mendall et al. (4), a number of studies have confirmed the key

Extragastric Manifestations of Helicobacter pylori Infection – Other Helicobacters

“…Active H. pylori infection was not associated with a modified lipid profile in either controls or IHD patients, although ApoAI levels were significantly higher in H. pylori ‐positive controls compared to H. pylori negative. Taken together, the results of the present study provide evidence that active H. pylori infection may play a role as a trigger factor in the pathophysiology of IHD by inducing an inflammatory cascade concentrated on gastric mucosa [2].…”

Helicobacter Pylori Infection is Positively Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Taiwanese Adults: a Cross‐Sectional Study

“…Our study population was relatively young (mean age: 35.2 years old), which may account for the lower infection rate. Subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of H. pylori infection increased with age in both men (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) 44.1%). Therefore, the higher prevalence was also observed in the older age groups in our study.…”

Influence ofHelicobacter pyloriInfection on Metabolic Syndrome in Old Chinese People

“…First, H. pylori infection impairs secretion balance of proinflammatory cytokines and CRP, angiotensinogen, free fatty acids, and leptin hormone, and thus, reactive oxygen species begin to accumulate. Subclinical chronic inflammation induced by H. pylori infection occurs via impaired cytokine balance and stimulated macrophages [ 12 , 13 ]. There are explanations that this leads to unresponsiveness to insulin in the peripheral tissue and subsequently to metabolic syndrome [ 14 – 17 ].…”