Pathogenesis of the carcinogenic bacterium, Helicobacter pylori

Gastric cancer is the second most common malignancy in the digestive system and the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Epidemiological data and experimental studies have identified several risk factors for gastric cancer, including Helicobacter pylori infection, low fruit and vegetable intake, N-nitrosoamine exposure, high salt diet, and smoking. Among these risk factors, H. pylori infection is the major cause of gastric cancer. Therefore, H. pylori has been classified as a type 1 (definite) carcinogen for gastric cancer by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1994. H. pylori colonizes the human stomach and has been definitively linked to chronic gastritis. Infection in some: susceptible individuals results in serious gastric disease such as peptic ulcer or gastric cancer. The first aim of this thesis was to examine the role of different T cell subpopulations in H. pylori gastritis. Using a murine adoptive transfer model, adoptive transfer of wildtype (wt) effector T cells (TE) into H. pylori-infected lymphopenic Rag2-/- recipient mice resulted in H. pylori-associated corpus gastritis superimposed with non-specific gastroduodenitis. Cotransfer with TE and regulatory T cells (TR) from wt or IL10-/- mice reduced gastroduodenitis, but only wt TR cells reduced corpus gastritis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Biological Engineering Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Chung-Wei, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James G. Fox.

• Biological Engineering Division.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39909
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39909

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39909