Helicobacter pylori cagA status and peptic ulcer disease in Iran.

Helicobacter pylori contributes to the development of peptic ulcers and atrophic gastritis. Furthermore, H. pylori strains carrying the cagA gene are more virulent than cagA -negative strains and are associated with the development of gastric adenocarcinoma. The cagA gene is a putative H. pylori virulence factor of unknown function. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the cagA gene among H. pylori isolates and its relationship with peptic ulcer disease in 128 Iranian patients. A total of 107 (83.6%) samples were positive, including 40 (95%) of the 42 patients with duodenal ulcer, 43 (86%) of the 50 patients with gastric ulcer, and 24 (66.6%) of the 36 patients with gastritis. cagA was present in 32 (80%) of 40 strains from duodenal ulcer patients, 33 (77%) of 43 strains from gastric ulcer patients, and 11 (46%) of 24 from gastritis patients. We also attempted to investigate the subtypes of 3' region of cagA gene in H. pylori strains isolated from Iranian patients and their relation to H. pylori-associated gastroduodenal diseases. The PCR product of cagA positive strains obtained with primer set CAG1/CAG2 differed in size, varying from 642 to 651 bp (subtype A) in 33 isolates to 756 bp (subtype B/D) in 13 isolates. This does not support the view that subtypes of the 3' region of cagA gene in H. pylori isolated from Iran correlate with the clinical outcomes of H. pylori, but colonization with cagA positive strains was significantly higher among duodenal ulcer than gastritis patients in Iran.