Helicobacter Heilmannii Gastritis

Abstract

H. heilmannii belongs to the Helicobacter family and is found in a small number of gastric biopsies. This bacterium is generally found in primates, cats, pigs, and carnivorous mammals. About 0.5% to 6% of human gastric infections have been attributed to H. heilmannii. The bacterium usually induces mild chronic gastritis but may be associated with peptic ulceration, and rare cases were reported in association with gastric carcinoma and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. We report a case of H. heilmannii chronic gastritis in a 44-year-old man with a history of chronic heartburn, found to have erythema and granularity in the antrum. Antral biopsy showed mild chronic gastritis with prominent lymphoid aggregates, and rare long, thin, spiral bacilli were present adjacent to the surface epithelium. The long tightly coiled morphology suggestive of H. heilmannii was obvious at 1000 x magnification. The lack of information in the literature regarding cross-reactivity of H. heilmannii to commercially available antibodies used for immunohistochemical detection of H. pylori prompted us to evaluate whether commercially available polyclonal anti-H. pylori antibodies show cross-reactivity between the two organisms. The H. pylori immunostain highlighted H. heilmannii organisms and their characteristic morphology, confirming cross-reactivity with the anti-H. pylori polyclonal antibody. This case illustrates the potential contribution of commercially available polyclonal antibodies against H. pylori to help confirm a diagnosis of H. heilmannii gastritis. The use of immunohistochemical stain to identify H. heilmannii may be useful in cases with a paucity of organisms, with suggestive but not diagnostic forms on routine hematoxylin and eosin stain.

Pathologic characteristics of infectious diseases in macaque monkeys used in biomedical and toxicologic studies

“…6f ). Coinfection with several species of Helicobacter bacteria (the so-called H. heilmannii -like organisms) may yield positive results for H. pylori in IHC analysis 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 . For the precise identification of Helicobacter species, PCR and other molecular techniques can be used.…”

Helicobacter heilmannii can induce gastric lymphoid follicles in mice via a Peyer's patch-independent pathway

“…Helicobacter heilmannii , a Gram‐negative rod bacterium that belongs to the Helicobacter family, which includes Helicobacter pylori , is characterized by a relatively large size (5–9 μm) and a corkscrew appearance. Helicobacter heilmannii is located in the stomachs of primates, cats, pigs, and humans (Singhal & Sepulveda, 2005), and causes gastritis, peptic ulcer, acute gastric mucosal lesion, gastric carcinoma, and mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma in humans (Okiyama et al , 2005). Previously, rRNA and urease gene sequence analysis revealed that ‘ H. heilmannii ’ is not a single species, but includes H. heilmannii type‐1 and H. heilmannii type‐2 strains (O'Rourke et al , 2004).…”

Clinical presentation and outcomes of Helicobacter heilmannii gastritis in children in the New England region of the United States

“…Chronic gastritis was the most common histologic finding in our cohort, employing a well-validated gastritis scoring tool (i.e., the Updated Sydney system), consistent with previous reports. 9,22,23,[35][36][37][38][39] Compared to H. pylori, H. heilmannii-associated chronic gastritis is considered to be more focal, milder, and restricted to the antrum. 40 In our study, we also found H. heilmanniiassociated chronic gastritis to have a milder degree of inflammation compared with H. pylori.…”