The aim of this study was to determine the presence of Helicobacter pylori cytotoxin-associated gene (cagA)/vacuolating cytotoxin gene (vacA) among patients with chronic gastritis in Cuba and Venezuela. Gastric antrum biopsies were taken for culture, DNA extraction and PCR analysis. Amplification of vacA and cagA segments was performed using two regions of cagA: 349 bp were amplified with the F...

BACKGROUND The cytotoxin associated gene A (cagA), and the vacuolating cytotoxin gene A (vacA) of Helicobacter pylori have been associated to phenotypic characteristics of virulence. The objectives of this study were to detect the presence of cagA and to characterize the allelic variants of vacA in 63 strains of H. pylori isolated from colonized individuals with different clinical outcomes. M...

Attachment of Helicobacter pylori to gastric epithelial cells induces various cellular responses, including the tyrosine phosphorylation of an unknown 145-kD protein and interleukin 8 production. Here we show that this 145-kD protein is the cagA product of H. pylori, an immunodominant, cytotoxin-associated antigen. Epithelial cells infected with various H. pylori clinical isolates resulted in g...

T he reasons why diabetic patients with microalbuminuria have marked endothelial damage (1,2) and an increased risk of atherosclerosis (3,4) are unclear. Infection with Helicobacter pylori, especially with strains carrying the cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA), might represent a causal factor, since anti-CagA antibodies elicited by infection may cross-react with endothelial antigens (5), incre...

AIMS To use a range of natural phenotypically variant strains of Helicobacter pylori with disparate CagA and VacA (vacuolating cytotoxin) expression to determine which bacterial factors are more closely associated with epithelial interleukin-8 (IL-8) induction. METHODS Gastric epithelial cells (AGS and KATO-3) were co-cultured with five H pylori strains which were variously shown to express t...

aim : this study was conducted to evaluate the influence h. pylori infection and anti- caga status on the efficacy of omeperazole 20 m.g. b.d. for patients with endoscopic oesophagitis. background : the influence of helicobacter pylori (h. pylori) infection and its virulent strain (cytotoxin-associated gene a: caga ) has not been evaluated on efficacy of treatment for patients with erosive oeso...

Objective(s):Helicobacter pylori infection occurs worldwide, but the prevalence of this infection varies greatly among different countries and population groups. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of anti-Helicobacter pylori and anti-cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) antibodies in asymptomatic healthy population in the center of Iran and to investigate the relation with ...

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is known to be associated with a spectrum of gastroduodenal diseases. We studied the association of H. pylori virulence markers cytotoxin-associated gene (cagA) and vacuolating associated cytotoxin gene (vacA) alleles in patients with non ulcer dyspepsia (NUD), gastric ulcer (GU), gastric carcinoma (GC) and duodenal ulcer (DU). METHODS H. p...

Background and Objectives The cytotoxin-associated gene (cag) pathogenicity island is reported to be a major virulence factor of Helicobacter pylori infection. It is previously reported that the cagA-positive strains are more virulent, so it can be postulated that the cagA-positive gastritis will be more severe and the serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and A(IgA) anti-CagA antibody titer will be hig...