title: Ammonia produced by Campylobacter pylori neutralizes H+ moving through gastric mucus.
abstract: We aimed to show that Campylobacter pylori infection increases the concentration of ammonia in the gastric mucus and alters the movement of H+ through the mucus. Mucus from uninfected and C. pylori-infected stomachs was collected at postmortem. Ammonia was measured enzymatically. The ammonia concentration in C. pylori-infected mucus was fourfold greater than in uninfected mucus. H+ movement experiments were carried out using an in vitro chamber, in which a layer of mucus separated a 0.1 M HCl solution from distilled H2O. The change in pH of the distilled H2O was measured over 30 min. A drop in pH was measured for uninfected mucus. A slight rise in pH was measured for C. pylori-infected mucus. We conclude that C. pylori infection is associated with reduced H+ movement through mucus and that this may be due to increased ammonia concentration within mucus.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tasman-Jones
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wiggins
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Forlong
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000378:metabolism*; D005744:Gastric Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism*; D005756:Gastritis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
chemical_list: D000641:Ammonia