ACTA FAC. MED. NAISS. 2003; 20 (1): 6 - 10

Review articles
 

DIVERSITY OF vacA GENOTYPES OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI AND ITS CORRELATION TO RESULT OF INFECTION

Marina Dinić, Marica Otašević, Gordana Tasić, Dobrila Đorđević, Biljana Miljković-Selimović, Ljiljana Otašević
Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Clinic for ophtalmology Clinical Center Niš
 

SUMMARY

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is microorganism that colonize gastric mucosal layer in health and causes chronic superficial gastritis. Infection is widely spread in human population and can persists for decades. In majority of infected symptoms does not exist, but in some diseased, peptic ulcer disease, gastric carcinoma and MALT lymphoma are developed. It is considered that particular virulence factors play important role in etiology of disease. Vacuolising cytotoxin A, respectively vacA gene, is among most important virulence factors. This gene regulates toxin synthesis. VacA gene characteristic is that can possess two types of signal sequences s1 and s2, and also subtypes s1a, s1b and s1c. It can also possess two types of middle region m1 and m2. Particular s and m types of vacA gene differ in cytotoxin production and in degree of gastric epithelium damage. A lot of studies points to relationship between vacA s1 genotype and peptic ulcer disease and suggests possibility of ulcer risk determination by detection of H. pylori genotype. But, there are studies that do not support this approach and point to necessities of immune response and microorganismus - host relationship clarifying.

Key words: H. pylori, vacA gene, peptic ulcer disease