Department of Gastroenterology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Singapore Med J. 2013 Aug;54(8):451-7. doi: 10.11622/smedj.2013153.
Helicobacter (H.) hepaticus infection causes chronic active hepatitis and induces hepatocellular tumours in A/JCr mice, but evidence of this in humans is scarce. This study aimed to demonstrate the correlation between H. hepaticus and human primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
The sera of 50 patients with primary HCC were tested for the presence of anti-H. pylori and anti-H. hepaticus immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. The liver tissues of patients who tested positive for serum antibody were analysed for H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA, H. hepaticus cdtB, H. pylori cagA, H. pylori vacA and H. pylori ureC genes using polymerase chain reaction.
After the anti-H. pylori antibodies in the serum samples were absorbed by H. pylori antigen, the anti-H. hepaticus IgG serum antibody detection rate was 50.0% in patients with primary HCC. This was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the detection rate in the benign liver tumour (7.7%) and normal liver tissue (6.3%) groups. Of the 25 primary HCC samples that tested positive for anti-H. hepaticus IgG serum antibody, the H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA gene was detected in nine (36.0%) samples. Sequencing showed that the polymerase chain reaction-amplified product exhibited 95.5%-100% homology to the H. hepaticus-specific 16S rRNA gene. Among these nine primary HCC tissue samples, the H. hepaticus cdtB gene was detected in four (44.4%) samples, while no such expression was observed in the benign liver tumour or normal liver tissue groups.
The present study identified the presence of H. hepaticus infection in patients with primary HCC using serological and molecular biological detection, suggesting that H. hepaticus infection may be involved in the progression of HCC.
肝螺杆菌（H.）感染可引起慢性活动性肝炎，并在 A/JCr 小鼠中诱导肝细胞肿瘤，但人类中这方面的证据很少。本研究旨在证明 H. hepaticus 与人类原发性肝细胞癌（HCC）之间的相关性。
检测 50 例原发性 HCC 患者血清中抗 H. pylori 和抗 H. hepaticus IgG 抗体的存在情况。对血清抗体阳性的患者的肝组织进行 H. hepaticus 特异性 16S rRNA、H. hepaticus cdtB、H. pylori cagA、H. pylori vacA 和 H. pylori ureC 基因的聚合酶链反应分析。
在血清样本中的抗 H. pylori 抗体被 H. pylori 抗原吸收后，原发性 HCC 患者的抗 H. hepaticus IgG 血清抗体检测率为 50.0%。与良性肝肿瘤（7.7%）和正常肝组织（6.3%）组相比，这一检测率显著升高（p < 0.001）。在 25 例抗 H. hepaticus IgG 血清抗体阳性的原发性 HCC 样本中，有 9 例（36.0%）检测到 H. hepaticus 特异性 16S rRNA 基因。测序显示，聚合酶链反应扩增产物与 H. hepaticus 特异性 16S rRNA 基因的同源性为 95.5%-100%。在这 9 例原发性 HCC 组织样本中，有 4 例（44.4%）检测到 H. hepaticus cdtB 基因，而良性肝肿瘤或正常肝组织组均未观察到这种表达。
本研究通过血清学和分子生物学检测方法，发现原发性 HCC 患者存在 H. hepaticus 感染，提示 H. hepaticus 感染可能参与 HCC 的进展。
