Premium
Interleukin‐18 and gestosis: correlation with Helicobacter pylori seropositivity
Author(s) -
Pugliese Agostino,
Beltramo Tiziana,
Todros Tullia,
Cardaropoli Simona,
Ponzetto Antonio
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
cell biochemistry and function
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1099-0844
pISSN - 0263-6484
DOI - 10.1002/cbf.1503
Subject(s) - helicobacter pylori , antibody , immunology , medicine , spirillaceae , biology , gastritis
The aim of this brief communication was to determine the correlation between pre‐eclampsia (PE), Helicobacter pylori pathogenic strains seropositivity, and interleukin‐18 (IL‐18) levels. To this purpose 25 pre‐eclamptic women and 25 healthy parturient women of similar age were evaluated for: IL‐18 levels, by ELISAH. pylori seropositivity, by anti‐IgG ELISA Anti‐Cag‐A antibodies using a commercial immunoblot assay.We report similar values of IL‐18 in our pre‐eclamptic patients and in healthy parturient women (respectively 350 ± 150 vs. 399 ± 132 pg ml −1 ; p = 0.23). However the seropositivity for H. pylori was 84 and 32% ( p < 0.001), and anti‐Cag‐A antibodies were present respectively in 80 and 28% of the two populations. On the basis of our data we hypothesize that H. pylori infection from Cag‐A strains can be involved in some cases of PE and that the microorganism could modulate IL‐18 release. In fact, differences on IL‐18 production have been described by different authors between pre‐eclamptic and healthy pregnant women, independently from infective pathology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.