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Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.01689-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Anti-Lewis x Antibody Promotes Helicobacter pylori Adhesion to Gastric Epithelial Cells

Institutes of Basic Medical Sciences and Molecular Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan; Department of Pathology, Ton-Yen General Hospital, Hsinchu, Taiwan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jjwu{at}mail.ncku.edu.tw.

	Abstract

Lewis X (Le^x) antigen is expressed on the human gastric mucosa and the O-specific chain of lipopolysaccharides of Helicobacter pylori. This antigen can induce autoantibodies, which may be involved in bacterial colonization and thus deserve further investigation. Flow cytometry was used to examine the effect of anti-Le monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) on H. pylori adhesion. A babA2 mutant was also constructed to evaluate the effect of an anti-Le^x MAb on adhesion. The bacterial agglutination and in situ adhesion assays were used to confirm the anti-Le^x MAb effect on H. pylori adhesion. This study revealed that an anti-Le^x MAb, but not anti-Le^b MAb or anti-Le^y MAb, could enhance the adhesion of H. pylori strains which expressed high levels of Le^x antigen to AGS cells. The enhancement was not found on H. pylori strain with low level of Le^x antigen. Anti-Le^x MAb could increase the adhesion of both the wild-type strain and its isogenic babA2 mutant to AGS cells. When AGS cells were pretreated with anti-Le^x MAb, the adhesion of the babA2 mutant also increased. Only anti-Le^x MAb could promote bacterial agglutination, and the in situ adhesion assay further confirmed that adding anti-Le^x MAb resulted in denser bacterial adhesion on the gastric epithelium collected from clinical patients. These results suggest anti-Le^x MAb could specifically enhance the adhesion ability of H. pylori strains through a mechanism by which anti-Le^x MAb promotes bacterial aggregation and mediates bivalent interaction (antigen-antibody-antigen) between bacteria and host cells.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Sheu, B.-S., Wu, J.-J. (2008). Type 1 and 2 Lewis antigens of Helicobacter pylori - a potential marker of the human geographical distribution. J Med Microbiol 57: 543-544 [Full Text]