Induction of follicular gastritis following postthymectomy autoimmune gastritis in Helicobacter pylori-infected BALB/c mice.

Helicobacter pylori is the major causative agent of chronic antral gastritis and is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALToma) developing in the human stomach. The aim of this study was to clarify whether corporal autoimmune gastritis (AIG), which is known to decrease acidity due to destruction of parietal cells, predisposes mice to H. pylori infection, thereby leading to MALToma-like pathology. BALB/c mice in which AIG had been induced by thymectomy 3 days after birth (AIG mice) were used. The AIG mice were orally administered mouse-adapted H. pylori at the age of 6 weeks and were examined histologically and serologically after 2 to 12 months. The results were compared with those obtained from uninfected AIG mice and infected normal mice. Germinal centers were induced in the corpus in 57% of the H. pylori-infected AIG mice, which elicited anti-H. pylori antibody responses in association with upregulation of interleukin-4 (IL-4) mRNA. In these mice, parietal cells remained in the corpus mucosa. These findings were in contrast to those with the uninfected AIG mice: fundic gland atrophy due to disappearance of parietal cells associated with upregulation of gamma interferon, but not IL-4, mRNA and no germinal center formation in the corpus. These observations suggest that AIG alters the infectivity of H. pylori, leading to MALToma-like follicular gastritis, at an early stage after H. pylori infection.