Detection of Helicobacter DNA in Bile Samples of Patients with Biliary Diseases Living in South of Iran

Background: it has been reported that several species ofhelicobacter colonize the biliary tract of animals and human,but their participation in hepatobiliary diseases are not established.this study is undertaken to determine if helicobactergenus members, especially with regard to h. pylori, could bedetected in the bile and gallbladder diseases.methods: thirty-eight gallbladder tissues and thirty-six bilesamples recovered from 38 patients with different gallbladderdiseases were subjected to rapid urease test, culture and anestablished multiplex-pcr using two pairs of primers basedon 16s rrna and isocitrate dehydrogenase genes specific forhelicobacter genus and h. pylori species, respectively. bileand tissue samples from 40 autopsy gallbladders with normalpathology were tested by pcr as control group.results: in 4 of 36 bile samples h. pylori was identified usingpcr. none of the tissue samples of the patients and controlswere positive in pcr for helicobacter dna. we were notsuccessful in isolation of helicobacter using culture method.conclusion: this study showed the presence of h. pyloridna in the bile samples of a small sample size of patientswith biliary diseases in south ofiran. we could find no pathogeneticrole for h. pylori in the formation of hepatobiliary disease.to establish a clinical role for helicobacter species inthe hepatobiliary diseases, more studies on a larger group ofpatients and control groups are needed to ascertain whetherhelicobacter species or their component might have a role as acausative agent or cofactor in the pathogenesis of biliary tractdiseases in human.