Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Nov 19;8(11):1827.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8111827.

Autoimmune Gastritis and Gastric Microbiota

Laura Conti  1 , Bruno Annibale  1 , Edith Lahner  1
Affiliations
Review

Autoimmune Gastritis and Gastric Microbiota

Laura Conti et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Autoimmune atrophic gastritis is an organ-specific immune-mediated condition characterized by atrophy of the oxyntic mucosa. Autoimmune atrophic gastritis (AIG) is characterized by a progressive loss of acid-secreting parietal cells leading to hypo-achlorhydria. Due to this peculiar intra-gastric environment, gastric microbiota composition in individuals with autoimmune atrophic gastritis was first supposed and then recently reported to be different from subjects with a normal acidic healthy stomach. Recent data confirm the prominent role of Helicobacter pylori as the main bacterium responsible for gastric disease and long-term complications. However, other bacteria than Helicobacter pylori, for example, Streptococci, were found in subjects who developed gastric cancer and in subjects at risk of this fearful complication, as well as those with autoimmune gastritis. Gastric microbiota composition is challenging to study due to the acidic gastric environment, the difficulty of obtaining representative samples of the entire gastric microbiota, and the possible contamination by oral or throat microorganisms, which can potentially lead to the distortion of the original gastric microbial composition, but innovative molecular approaches based on the analysis of the hyper-variable region of the 16S rRNA gene have been developed, permitting us to obtain an overall microbial composition view of the RNA gene that is present only in prokaryotic cells.

Keywords: atrophic gastritis; autoimmune gastritis; gastric microbiota.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A possible link between autoimmune gastritis, hypochlorhydria, and gastric cancer may be hypothesized. Autoimmune gastritis, a corpus-restricted Hp-negative atrophic gastritis, is characterized by progressive immune-mediated atrophy of the oxyntic mucosa with subsequent loss of acid-secreting parietal cells, leading to hypochlorhydria. This changed intra-gastric microenvironment can make possible the survival of other bacteria than Hp possibly playing a key role in gastric carcinogenesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rugge M., Correa P., Dixon M.F., Fiocca R., Hattori T., Lechago J., Leandro G., Price A.B., Sipponen P., Solcia E., et al. Gastric mucosal atrophy: Interobserver consistency using new criteria for classification and grading. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 2002;16:1249–1259. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2036.2002.01301.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lahner E., Zagari R.M., Zullo A., Di Sabatino A., Meggio A., Cesaro P., Lenti M.V., Annibale B., Corazza G.R. Chronic atrophic gastritis: Natural history, diagnosis and therapeutic management. A position paper by the Italian Society of Hospital Gastroenterologists and Digestive Endoscopists [AIGO], the Italian Society of Digestive Endoscopy [SIED], the Italian Society of Gastroenterology [SIGE], and the Italian Society of Internal Medicine [SIMI] Dig. Liver Dis. 2019;51:1621–1632. - PubMed
    1. Massironi S., Zilli A., Elvevi A., Invernizzi P. The changing face of chronic autoimmune atrophic gastritis: An updated comprehensive perspective. Autoimmun. Rev. 2019;18:215–222. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2018.08.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lenti M.V., Rugge M., Lahner E., Miceli E., Toh B.-H., Genta R.M., De Block C., Hershko C., Di Sabatino A. Autoimmune gastritis. Nat. Rev. Dis. Primers. 2020;6:56. doi: 10.1038/s41572-020-0187-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Toh B.-H. Diagnosis and classification of autoimmune gastritis. Autoimmun. Rev. 2014;13:459–462. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2014.01.048. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources