title: Helicobacter hepaticus infection in primary hepatocellular carcinoma tissue.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Helicobacter (H.) hepaticus infection causes chronic active hepatitis and induces hepatocellular tumours in A/JCr mice, but evidence of this in humans is scarce. This study aimed to demonstrate the correlation between H. hepaticus and human primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sera of 50 patients with primary HCC were tested for the presence of anti-H. pylori and anti-H. hepaticus immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. The liver tissues of patients who tested positive for serum antibody were analysed for H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA, H. hepaticus cdtB, H. pylori cagA, H. pylori vacA and H. pylori ureC genes using polymerase chain reaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the anti-H. pylori antibodies in the serum samples were absorbed by H. pylori antigen, the anti-H. hepaticus IgG serum antibody detection rate was 50.0% in patients with primary HCC. This was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the detection rate in the benign liver tumour (7.7%) and normal liver tissue (6.3%) groups. Of the 25 primary HCC samples that tested positive for anti-H. hepaticus IgG serum antibody, the H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA gene was detected in nine (36.0%) samples. Sequencing showed that the polymerase chain reaction-amplified product exhibited 95.5%-100% homology to the H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA gene. Among these nine primary HCC tissue samples, the H. hepaticus cdtB gene was detected in four (44.4%) samples, while no such expression was observed in the benign liver tumour or normal liver tissue groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study identified the presence of H. hepaticus infection in patients with primary HCC using serological and molecular biological detection, suggesting that H. hepaticus infection may be involved in the progression of HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Jili
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shangwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Yonggui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiangbin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology*; D044923:Helicobacter hepaticus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D007074:Immunoglobulin G