Agglutination of Helicobacter pylori coccoids by lectins

AIM:To study the agglutination pattern of Helicobacter pylori coccoid andspiral forms.METHODS:Assays of agglutination and agglu-tination inhibition were applied using fifteen commercial lectins.RESULTS:Strong agglutination was observed with Mannose specific Concanavalin A(Con A), fucose specific Tetragonolobus purpureas(Lotus A) and N-acetyl glucosamine-specific Triticum vulgaris (WGA) lectins. Mannose and fucose specific lectins were reactive with all strains of H. pylori coccoids as compared to the spirals. Specific carbohydrates, glyco-proteins and mucin were shown to inhibit H. pylori lectin agglutination reactions.Pre-treatment of the bacterial cells with formalin and sulphuric acid did not alter the agglutination patterns with lectins. However, sodium periodate treatment of bacterial cells were shown to inhibit agglutination reaction with Con A, Lotus A and WGA lectins. On the contrary, enzymatic treatment of coccoids and spirals did not show marked inhibition of H. pylori-lectin agglutination. Interes-tingly, heating of H. pylori cells at 60° for 1 hour was shown to augment the agglutination with all of the lectins tested.CONCLUSION:The consi-derable differences in lectin agglutination patterns seen among the two different-tiated forms of H. pylori might be attributable to the structural changes during the events of morphological trans-formation, resulting in exposing or masking some of the sugar residues on the cell surface. Possibility of various sugar residues on the cell wall of the coccoids may allow them to bind to different carbohydrate receptors on gastric mucus and epithelial cells. The coccoids with adherence characteristics like the spirals could aid in the pathogenic process of Helicobacter infection. This may probably lead to different clinical outcome of H. pylori associated gastro-duodenal disease.