TYPE-I HELICOBACTER-PYLORI SHOWS LEWIS(B)-INDEPENDENT ADHERENCE TO GASTRIC CELLS REQUIRING DE-NOVO PROTEIN-SYNTHESIS IN BOTH HOST AND BACTERIA

Type I Helicobacter pylori strains frequently recognize the Lewis(b) ( Le(b)) blood group antigen. This binding property and expression of th e Leb oligosaccharide were required for adherence to fixed normal or p athologic gastric tissue. In contrast, both type I and type II strains adhered to cultured cells in the absence of the Leb epitope. For the gastric cell line AGS, adherence was significantly higher when viable type I strains were allowed to interact with viable AGS cells compared with fixed cells. The observation that chloramphenicol and cyclohexim ide, inhibitors of bacterial and eukaryotic protein synthesis, respect ively, significantly reduced adherence of type I but not type II isola tes suggests that in type I strains, adherence depends on the up-regul ation of one or more host cell receptors triggered by the bacterium.