[Virulence factors of Helicobacter pylori: what are they?]

The pathogenic properties of Helicobacter pylori are due to the ability of this bacterium to survive in the acidic gastric juice, to freely move and multiply within the mucus, to colonize the gastric mucosa and persist as an extracellular bacterium for decades despite the strong immune local and cellular responses they trigger. Every H. pylori isolate expresses properties that permit them colonization and persistence. In contrast, isolates may or not be expressing properties that potentially contribute to the genesis of tissue lesions due to the direct action of deleterious bacterial products or to the induction and/or modulation of the inflammatory response associated with the expression of specific antigens. Those are designated as pathogenic factors and might be useful to discriminate isolates.