title: Interleukin-18 and gestosis: correlation with Helicobacter pylori seropositivity.
abstract: The aim of this brief communication was to determine the correlation between pre-eclampsia (PE), Helicobacter pylori pathogenic strains seropositivity, and interleukin-18 (IL-18) levels. To this purpose 25 pre-eclamptic women and 25 healthy parturient women of similar age were evaluated for: IL-18 levels, by ELISAH. pylori seropositivity, by anti-IgG ELISAAnti-Cag-A antibodies using a commercial immunoblot assay.We report similar values of IL-18 in our pre-eclamptic patients and in healthy parturient women (respectively 350 +/- 150 vs. 399 +/- 132 pg ml(-1); p = 0.23). However the seropositivity for H. pylori was 84 and 32% (p < 0.001), and anti-Cag-A antibodies were present respectively in 80 and 28% of the two populations. On the basis of our data we hypothesize that H. pylori infection from Cag-A strains can be involved in some cases of PE and that the microorganism could modulate IL-18 release. In fact, differences on IL-18 production have been described by different authors between pre-eclamptic and healthy pregnant women, independently from infective pathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Teaching of Clinical Virology in Post Doctoral School of Infectious Disease, Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, University of Turin, Italy. agostino.pugliese@unito.it
authors.forename: Agostino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pugliese
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beltramo
authors.forename: Tullia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Todros
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cardaropoli
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponzetto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000097:blood*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000097:blood* / Q000382:microbiology*; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D020382:Interleukin-18