Abstract

PERRONE, Marianella et al. Helicobacter pylori vac A genotypes in a Venezuelan population. Rev. Soc. Ven. Microbiol. [online]. 2009, vol.29, n.1, pp.39-43. ISSN 1315-2556.

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with gastritis, gastroduodenal ulcer, and Maltoma type lymphoma, and is also considered an important risk factor for the development of gastric cancer. The purpose of this study was to characterize vacA genotypes of H. pylori strains from gastric biopsies from a Venezuelan population. One hundred and  twenty eight patients who required endoscopy due to disease of the upper digestive system were evaluated. A gastric biopsy was taken from each of them for glm amplification and typing of the allelic vacA  forms, using the polymerase chain reaction assay. Results showed that 82 (64%) of the samples were positive for glm amplification. Of these, 51 (62%) of the strains had the vacA genotype, S1 allelic form (17 sla, 29 slb, 5 sla+slb, 10 were not typable) and 21 (26%) had the S2 subtype. The analysis of the vacA mid region revealed that 42 (51%) were vacA m1, 26 (32%) m2, and 14 did not type for m1 or m2. The results of this investigation showed a high frequency of H. pylori vacA genotype infections, s1/m1 allelic variants

Keywords : Helicobacter pylori; vacA; pathogenicity; virulence; genotypes; mixed infection.