ASSOCIATION OF HELICOBACTER-PYLORI AND GASTRIC AUTOIMMUNITY - A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

Based on clinical studies, a negative association between Helicobacter pylori and autoimmune corpus gastritis is described. In the present i nvestigation of an unselected population of 1461 adults we can state, however, that there exists a relationship between H. pylori infection and the development of gastric corpus autoimmunity. As confirmation fo r the gastric autoantibody development through molecular mimicry, a hi gh homology (72% in 25 amino acid overlap) between the beta subunit of H. pylori urease and that of H + K + ATPase, the gastric parietal cel l autoantigen, was revealed.