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. 2015 Sep;22(5):70-75.

Why do we still have Helicobacter Pylori in our Stomachs

Amin Talebi Bezmin Abadi  1 , Enzo Ierardi  2 , Yeong Yeh Lee  3
Affiliations

Why do we still have Helicobacter Pylori in our Stomachs

Amin Talebi Bezmin Abadi et al. Malays J Med Sci. 2015 Sep.

Abstract

The existence of any infectious agent in a highly acidic human stomach is contentious, but the chance finding of Helicobacter pylori is by no means an accident. Once H. pylori colonises the gastric mucosa, it can persist for a lifetime, and it is intriguing why our immune system is able to tolerate its existence. Some conditions favour the persistence of H. pylori in the stomach, but other conditions oppose the colonisation of this bacterium. Populations with high and extremely low prevalence of H. pylori provide useful insights on the clinical outcomes that are associated with this type of infection. Adverse clinical outcomes including peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer depend on a delicate balance between a harmless inflammation and a more severe kind of inflammation. Is the only good H. pylori really a dead H. pylori? The jury is still out.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; elimination; gastric cancer; peptic ulcer disease; stomach; survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conditions or forces that favor survival or elimination of H. pylori in the human stomach.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Increasing severity of digestive diseases in the case of imbalanced relationship between H. pylori and the human host.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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