Seroprevalence of antibody against Helicobacter pylori and identification of its specific genes in liver tissues of chronic hepatitis B virus infected patients

Objective To analyze the seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and its specific genes in liver tissues of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected patients, and to investigate the effect of H. pylori on development of chronic HBV infected liver diseases. Methods Five hundred and two patients infected with HBV and 429 sex-and age matched healthy controls were enrolled in the case-control study. All subjects were tested for presence of antibodies against H. pylori using ELISA. Fifty-six liver biopsy samples were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using Helicobacter genus-specific 16S rRNA primers. The positive samples were further amplified using specific primers of H. pylori cagA, vacA and glmM genes. Results H. pylori infection was accounted for 63.9% in HBV infected patients, which was higher than that in healthy controls (43.4%,P<0.05). Moreover, the seroprevalence of H. pylori in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, 29/36,80.6%) or cirrhosis (64/83,77.1%) was higher than that in patients with chronic hepatitis (228/383,59.5%, P<0.01). Helicobacter genus-specific 16S rRNA was found in 17,7 or 11 of patients with cirrhosis, HCC or chronic hepatitis. Twenty-one samples were confirmed as H. pylori DNA by PCR. Conclusions The seroprevalence of antibody against H. pylori was higherHelicobacter can be detected in liver tissues of HBV infected patients. H. pylori might play the role in the development in HBV infected patients compared with healthy controls. Besides H. pylori, other of chronic hepatitis to cirrhosis and HCC. Key words: Helicobacter pylori;  Hepatitis B;  Live cirrhosis;  Live neoplasms