Affiliations: Department of Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, USA | Department of Microbiology Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate
Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India | Pediatric Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate
Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India
Note: [] Correspondence: Prof. Kashi N. Prasad, Department of
Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences,
Lucknow-226 014, India. Tel.: +91 522 2668631 (R); Fax: +91 522 2668017;
E-mail: knprasad@sgpgi.ac.in
Abstract: Two human gastric pathogens, Helicobacter pylori and
Helicobacter heilmannii are apparently different genetically as well as
morphologically. H. pylori have short spiral morphology while H.
heilmannii is a long spiral bacterium with four or more turns. In this study,
we observed elongated, spiral, Gram-negative organisms in crush smears of
antral biopsies from two children with upper abdominal pain and one with celiac
disease; all these biopsies were positive for rapid urease test. Histologically
the children had mild to moderate gastritis. Ultra-structurally, the organisms
were more elongated than H. pylori and spiral shaped with periplasmic
space. They were grown on chocolate Brucella agar and colonies were identified
as H. pylori biochemically and by urease gene based polymerase chain
reaction. Nuclear magnetic resonance study of sonicated extracts of these
organisms showed similar metabolic peaks as H. pylori. 16S-rDNA
sequencing results confirmed that the isolated organisms were H. pylori.
The study suggests that a morphologically different (elongated) form of H.
pylori strain exists in the stomach of children and is associated with gastric
pathology.
Keywords: Celiac disease, children, gastritis, H. pylor}, upper abdominal pain
