ABO blood groups and Helicobacter pylori cagA infection: evidence of an association

• Main Authors: DE Mattos, JR Cintra, CC Brandão de Mattos, F Nakashima, RCMA Silva, HW Moreira, LC de Mattos
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SciELO 2010
• Subjects: ABO blood groups; H. pylori infection; cagA strain; chronic active gastritis; peptic ulcers; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Toxicology. Poisons; RA1190-1270; Zoology; QL1-991; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/1e05994a74034f9c85736012a570a62b

Diseases resulting from Helicobacter pylori infection appear to be dependent on a host of genetic traits and virulence factors possessed by this microorganism. This paper aimed to investigate the association between the ABO histo-blood groups and H. pylori cagA infections. Genomic DNA samples (n = 110) of gastric biopsies obtained from patients with endoscopic diagnosis of peptic ulcers (n = 25) and chronic active gastritis (n = 85) were analyzed by PCR using specific primers for the cagA gene. Of the samples, 66.4% (n = 73) tested positive and 33.6% (n = 37) negative for the gene. The cagA strain was predominant in peptic ulcers (n = 21; 84.0%) compared with chronic active gastritis (n = 52; 61.2%) (p = 0.05; OR 3.332; 95% CI: 1.050-10.576). Additionally, the cagA strain was prevalent in the type O blood (48/63; 76.2%) compared with other ABO phenotypes (25/47; 53.2%) (p = 0.01; OR 2.816; 95% CI: 1.246-6.364). These results suggest that H. pylori cagA infection is associated with the O blood group in Brazilian patients suffering from chronic active gastritis and peptic ulcers.