title: Relationship between gastric ulcer and Helicobacter pylori VacA detected in gastric juice using bead-ELISA method.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  VacA is an important pathogenetic factor produced by Helicobacter pylori. VacA has often been detected in supernatants of liquid cultures or lysates of whole bacterial cells. However, no studies have ever tried to assay VacA produced in the human stomach. We applied a very sensitive and simple method, bead-ELISA, to detect VacA in gastric juice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-eight H. pylori-positive patients (16 nonulcer dyspepsia, 16 gastric ulcer, and 16 duodenal ulcer) and four H. pylori-negative nonulcer dyspepsia patients had endoscopy performed and gastric juice were aspirated. Polystyrene beads coated with the antibody to VacA, were used in this bead-ELISA method. The nucleotide sequences of vacA in the signal and middle regions were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 48 samples that were positive for H. pylori, 21 [43.8%] were found to be VacA positive in gastric juice. The average and maximum concentrations of detected VacA in gastric juice were 143.2 +/- 216.5 and 840 pg/ml, respectively. The average density of VacA from gastric ulcer patients (227.5 +/- 276.7 pg/ml) was higher than that found in nonulcer dyspepsia (51.8 +/- 39.8 pg/ml) and duodenal ulcer (49.2 +/- 21.5 pg/ml) patients. There was no relationship between VacA in gastric juice and vacA genotype.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VacA in gastric juice could be directly detected by bead-ELISA. In this study, the diversity of disease outcome was associated with not the quality but the quantity of VacA. Therefore, not only the quality but also the quantity of VacA is important etiological factors in the pathogenesis of mucosal damage.
authors.affiliation: Division of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Disease, Department of Clinical Molecular Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shirasaka
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakashita
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.forename: Casmir Marwa
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Wambura
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Kinnosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yahiro
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Hisao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kurazono
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirayama
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kasuga
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000382:microbiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005750:Gastric Juice / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C074689:VacA protein, Helicobacter pylori