Gastric ghrelin in relation to gender, stomach topography and Helicobacter pylori in dyspeptic patients.

AIM: To investigate the level of gastric ghrelin in stomach mucosa of dyspeptic patients in relation to Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection, bacterial cytotoxicity, topography and gender.
METHODS: The study comprised 40 premenopausal women (19 H pylori positive) and 48 men (17 H pylori positive) with functional dyspepsia. All gastric biopsy specimens revealed normal mucosa or non-atrophic gastritis. Gastric ghrelin concentration was determined by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The cagA and vacA strains of bacterial DNA were identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction.
RESULTS: In general, infection with H pylori caused an increase in gastric ghrelin level regardless of gender and stomach topography. Significantly more hormone was present in both, non-infected and H pylori positive female samples, as compared to males. The distribution of bacterial strains showed cagA(+) vacA s1m1 and cagA(-) vacA s2m2 genotypes as the most common infections in the studied population. A tendency to higher ghrelin levels was observed in less cytotoxic (cagA negative) strain-containing specimens from the antrum and corpus of both gender groups (without statistical significance).
CONCLUSION: An increase in gastric ghrelin levels at the stage of non-atrophic gastritis in H pylori positive patients, especially in those infected with cagA(-) strains, can exert a gastroprotective effect.