Lactobacillus improves Helicobacter pylori infected gastritis

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are considered to be the most important etiological agents of chronic gastritis. The eradication of H. pyloridepends on the combination of antibiotics and acid suppression drugs. Unfortunately, the side effects of antibiotics reduce the curative effect and treatment compliance. Probiotics provides an alternative method which can inhibit H. pylori infection efficiently without antibiotics associated side effects.

A research team from China investigated the potential anti-H. pylori and anti-inflammation in vivo effects of two lactobacillus strains from human stomach. Their study will be published on January 28, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Their results illustrated that both lactobacillus strain Lactobacillus fermenti (L. fermenti) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. acidophilus), showed significant anti-H. pylori activity, while strain L. fermenti displayed more efficient antagonistic activity in vivo whose efficacy is close to the standard triple therapy, thus significantly improving the H. pylori-associated Balb/c gastritis.

Their study provided a new clue for the therapy of H. pylori associated diseases, which could be prevented and treated by regulating the balance of flora in stomach. Thus lactobacillus can be a choice to replace antibiotics or as an adjuvant to antibiotics in treating H. pylori-infected diseases.

Reference: Cui Y, Wang CL, Liu XW, Wang XH, Chen LL, Zhao X, Fu N, Lu FG. Two stomach-originated lactobacillus strains improve Helicobacter pylori infected murine gastritis. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(4): 445-452

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/16/445.asp

Correspondence to: Fang-Gen Lu, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China. lufanggenyao@163.com

Telephone: +86-731-85295888 Fax: +86-731-84807725

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.