LONG-TERM SEQUELAE OF EXPERIMENTAL GASTRITIS WITH HELICOBACTER-PYLORI- A 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

To investigate the long-term effects of Helicobacter pylori gastritis on the gastric mucosa, 13 wild Japanese monkeys (six H. pylori-infecte d and seven controls) were monitored for 5 years. Colonization with H. pylori, the presence of macroscopic and histological gastritis, pylor ic glandular height, and epithelial cell kinetics were investigated, u sing Ki-67 immunostaining in the gastric mucosa. In the infected group , persistent colonization with H. pylori was demonstrated by culture a nd histopathologic examination, In this group, the gastritis scores we re significantly higher than in controls. Simultaneously, a significan t decrease in the height of antral glands and a significant increase i n the length of Ki-67-positive cells between the highest and lowest ce lls were also demonstrated in the infected animals, These experimental results directly demonstrate the effect of H. pylori infection un the gastric mucosa and may explain the potential mechanism for its causal role in the chain of events leading to gastric carcinoma.