H Pylori
Copyright ©2005 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2005; 11(1): 94-98
Published online Jan 7, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i1.94
Ethnic difference of Helicobacter pylori gastritis: Korean and Japanese gastritis is characterized by male- and antrum-predominant acute foveolitis in comparison with American gastritis
Inchul Lee, Hojung Lee, Mijung Kim, Manabu Fukumoto, Shinji Sawada, Shriram Jakate, Victor E. Gould
Inchul Lee, Hojung Lee, Mijung Kim, Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 138-736, Korea
Manabu Fukumoto, Department of Pathology, Institute of Development, Aging & Cancer, Tohoku university, Sendai 980-8575, Japan
Shinji Sawada, Department of Pathology, Nagahama City Hospital, Oh-Inui-cho, Shiga 526-8580, Japan
Shriram Jakate, Victor E. Gould, Department of Pathology, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by Joint Korean-Israeli Research Grant by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology, M6-0025-00-0002-02-A01-00-002-00
Correspondence to: Professor Inchul Lee, Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 388-1 Poongnap-Dong, Songpa-Gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea. iclee@amc.seoul.kr
Telephone: +82-2-3010-4551 Fax: +82-2-472-7898
Received: May 30, 2004
Revised: May 31, 2004
Accepted: July 17, 2004
Published online: January 7, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological factors underlying the ethnic differences of Helicobacter pylori gastritis and cancer.

METHODS: We analyzed clinicopathological parameters of gastric biopsies having H pylori infection that were randomly selected from different ethnic populations including 147 Americans, 149 Japanese, and 181 Koreans.

RESULTS: Males were predominant in Japanese and Korean populations (77.9 and 67.4% respectively) in comparison with Americans (48.3%) (P<0.001). H pylori gastritis in Koreans and Japanese was characterized by the predominant antral involvement. In the antrum, neutrophilic infiltration into the proliferative zone of pit, i.e., acute foveolitis, was more frequent in Koreans (82%) than in Japanese (71%) (P<0.05) and Americans (61%) (P<0.001). Interstitial neutrophilic infiltration, intestinal metaplasia and atrophy were also frequent in Koreans and Japanese. In the body, the prevalence of acute foveolitis was not significantly different among the populations while chronic interstitial inflammation and lymphoid follicles were more pronounced in the body of Americans than in the body of others (P<0.01).

CONCLUSION: The male-, and antrum-predominant H pylori gastritis in Koreans and Japanese is compatible with the pattern of sex and topographical distribution of gastric cancer incidence. Our data suggest that persistent acute foveolitis at the proliferative zone is a crucial step in the gastric carcinogenesis.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori infection; Gastritis; Ethnic groups