Spleen Cell Transfer In Mice Resolves Helicobacter pylori Infection.(Brief Article)

2001 MAR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer -- Vaccination of mice using normal spleen cells may cure Helicobacter pylori infection, say researchers working in the United States.

Previous vaccinations have not cured H. pylori and have caused gastritis that likely exacerbates the disease, reported K.A. Eaton and colleagues in the journal Infection and Immunity.

The goal of their study was to determine if adoptive transfer of normal spleen cells to mice could cure infection without exacerbating gastritis, said Eaton and associates.

Researchers vaccinated normal and H. pylori-infected mice with spleen cells. Two kinds of mice were used: C57BL/6 mice and SCID (severe combined immunodeficient) mice. They then evaluated gastritis, immune responses, and colonization with H. pylori at intervals between five and 51 weeks after infection.

In the c57BL/6 mice with H. pylori infection, gastritis developed gradually and bacterial colonization persisted. In infected SCID mice, gastritis developed quickly, peaking at nine weeks post-vaccination, then dropped off at 45 weeks when bacterial colonization could not be detected ("Cure of Helicobacter pylori infection and resolution of gastritis by ...