Evidence for the occurrence of the same strain of Campylobacter pylori in the stomach and dental plaque.

Restriction endonuclease analysis with HindIII, HaeIII, and BglII endonucleases of DNA extracted from each of eight colonies of Campylobacter pylori subcultured from a stomach biopsy and from each of eight colonies subcultured from dental plaque of the same patient indicated that at least three strains were present in the dental plaque but only one strain was present in the biopsy. One of the dental strains had restriction patterns indistinguishable from those of the biopsy isolate, providing evidence that both sites were infected with the same strain of C. pylori.