Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2021; 9(32): 9815-9824
Published online Nov 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i32.9815
Association between Helicobacter pylori infection and food-specific immunoglobulin G in Southwest China
Ying Liu, Ping Shuai, Yu-Ping Liu, Dong-Yu Li
Ying Liu, Ping Shuai, Yu-Ping Liu, Dong-Yu Li, Health Management Center, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, Sichuan Province, China
Ying Liu, Ping Shuai, Yu-Ping Liu, Dong-Yu Li, Health Management Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan Translational Medicine Research Hospital, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Liu Y and Li DY contributed to the conception and design of the work; Liu Y and Shuai P contributed to the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for the study; Liu Y contributed to drafting the work; Li DY and Liu YP revised the manuscript; Li DY was accountable for all aspects of the work.
Supported by Key Research and Development Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China, No. 2017YFC0113901.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee of Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital [Approval No. 408(2020)].
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dong-Yu Li, MD, Doctor, Health Management Center, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 32 Section 2, West 1st Ring Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu 611731, Sichuan Province, China. dongyuzhiyin@163.com
Received: June 27, 2021
Peer-review started: June 27, 2021
First decision: July 14, 2021
Revised: July 19, 2021
Accepted: September 1, 2021
Article in press: September 1, 2021
Published online: November 16, 2021
Processing time: 135 Days and 13.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been found to be associated with extragastrointestinal diseases, possibly including adverse food reactions (such as food allergy or intolerance). However, there are few studies on H. pylori and food allergy or intolerance, and the results are inconsistent. Food-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G has been revealed to be associated with food allergy or intolerance and can be used as a marker to explore the correlation between H. pylori infection and food allergy or intolerance.

AIM

To explore the relationship between H. pylori infection and food-specific IgG

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed the physical examination data of 21822 subjects from February 2014 to December 2018 in this study. H. pylori infection was detected using the 13C urea breath test. Food-specific IgG of eggs, milk and wheat in serum was assessed. Subjects were grouped according to H. pylori positivity, and the positive rates of three kinds of food-specific IgG were compared between the two groups. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to elucidate the association between H. pylori infection and food-specific IgG.

RESULTS

The total infection rate of H. pylori was 39.3%, and the total food-specific IgG-positive rates of eggs, milk and wheat were 25.2%, 9.0% and 4.9%, respectively. The infection rate of H. pylori was higher in males than in females, while the positive rates of food-specific IgG were lower in males than in females. The positive rates of food-specific IgG decreased with age in both males and females. In the H. pylori-positive groups, the positive rates of food-specific IgG of eggs, milk and wheat were all lower than those in the H. pylori-negative groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that H. pylori infection was negatively correlated with the food-specific IgG-positive rates of eggs, milk and wheat (odds ratio value of eggs 0.844-0.873, milk 0.741-0.751 and wheat 0.755-0.788, in different models).

CONCLUSION

H. pylori infection was found to be negatively associated with the food-specific IgG of eggs, milk and wheat in Southwest China.

Keywords: Food-specific IgG; Helicobacter pylori; Adverse food reaction; Food allergy; Food intolerance; Humoral immunity

Core Tip: This is a retrospective study to evaluate the association of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and food-specific immunoglobulin G. We analyzed the data of 21822 subjects who underwent H. pylori infection assessment by the urea breath test and testing for food-specific immunoglobulin G of eggs, milk and wheat. The key finding was that H. pylori infection was associated with lower positivity for food-specific immunoglobulin G. If the negative correlation could be further confirmed and the mechanism could be clarified, it would provide some advisable suggestions for medical decisions regarding asymptomatic H. pylori infection.