Evaluation of Helicobacter species in inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Background: Bacteria have been implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Helicobacter species have been shown to cause colitis in animal models and have been identified in human diarrhoeal illness and Crohn's disease. Aim: To determine whether Helicobacter species are present in human inflammatory bowel disease tissue. Methods: Thirty patients undergoing colonoscopy for clinical reasons were studied. Nine had Crohn's disease, 11 had ulcerative colitis and 10 had histologically normal colons. Tissue was snap-frozen at -70°C. DNA was extracted and examined by five different polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays that were either genus or species specific for Helicobacter. R..