Local and peripheral cytokine response and CagA status of Helicobacter pylori-positive patients with duodenal ulcer

The mucosal production of TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and nitrotyrosine was investigated in H. pylori-positive patients with duodenal ulcer (DU). The concentrations of these cytokines in gastric antrum mucosal specimens from patients infected with H. pylori (n = 40) were determined by ELISA and compared with data on mucosal specimens from H. pylori-negative patients (n = 12). Nitrotyrosine was determined by ECL Western blotting. It was additionally investigated whether the tissue levels of the cytokines correlated with the peripheral cytokine levels, and the CagA status of the patients. The local TNF-a, IL-6 and IL-8 concentrations in the antral biopsy samples were significantly higher (p < 0.001) in the patients infected with H. pylori than in the samples from the H. pylori-negative subjects. There was a negative correlation between the TNF-alpha and IL-10 concentrations. Further more, in 23 of the 40 biopsy specimens, considerable nitrotyrosine production was detected by ECL Western blotting. There was no significant difference in peripheral TNF-a and IL-6 production between the DU patients and healthy blood donors (n = 100; 58% of whom were also H. pylori-positive). Only the in vitro IL-8-producing capacity was higher in the peripheral blood of the DU group after ex vivo induction with H. pylori. CagA positivity was demonstrated in 39 (97.5%) of the 40 patients with DU, and in 41 (70.7%) of the 58 H. pylori-positive, healthy blood donors. This study suggests that besides the bacterial virulence factor, the host response, with an increased mucosal production of inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species could be relevant to the gastric pathophysiology in H. pylori-induced DU. There is no generalized cytokine overproduction in these DU patients, but the moderate increase in in vitro IL-8 production might be of pathophysiological importance.