Genotypic variation of Helicobacter pylori isolated from gastric antrum and body in Korean patients

ABSTRACT

Although most persons infected with Helicobacter pylori harbor a single strain of the organism, multiple strain colonization in the same patient is also occasionally reported in developed countries. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of multiple strain colonization in Korean patients and to detect the cagA, iceA1, and babA status of H. pylori isolated from the antrum and body of the stomach. H. pylori was obtained from 35 patients from the antrum and body of the stomach. The genomic diversity of H. pylori was determined by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. The status of cagA, iceA1, and babA genes of H. pylori was assessed by polymerase chain reaction with appropriate primers. Clearly different diversity patterns were identified among the isolates from 35 individual patients. Eighteen (51.4%) patients had a single strain of H. pylori. Eight (22.9%) and nine (25.7%) patients had subtypically (one or two bands difference) and typically (clearly different pattern) different strains of H. pylori in the antrum and body, respectively. Among the 70 isolates of H. pylori from 35 patients, the positive rates of 349-bp and 208-bp cagA gene fragments and the iceA1 gene were 68/70 (97.1%), 68/70 (97.1%), and 58/70 (82.9%), respectively. However, the babA gene was found in 22/66 cases (31.4%). In five out of 18 patients with a single strain, the genetic status of cagA, iceA1, and babA varied between the isolates from the antrum and the body. In 8/17 patients with subtypically or typically different strains, the gene status differed between antrum and body isolates. The prevalence of co-colonization with typically or subtypically different strains is high in Korea, and sub-clones with different pathogenic gene status exist within strains of identical RAPD patterns.