Helicobacter Pylori Infection Is Associated with Neurodegeneration in Cognitively Normal Men

An association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and dementia was reported in previous studies; however, the evidence is inconsistent.

In the present study, the association between H. pylori infection and brain cortical thickness as a biomarker of neurodegeneration was investigated.

A cross-sectional study of 822 men who underwent a medical health check-up, including an esophagogastroduodenoscopy and 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging, was performed. H. pylori infection status was assessed based on histology. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationship between H. pylori infection and brain cortical thickness.

Men with H. pylori infection exhibited overall brain cortical thinning (p = 0.022), especially in the parietal (p = 0.008) and occipital lobes (p = 0.050) compared with non-infected men after adjusting for age, educational level, alcohol intake, smoking status, and intracranial volume. 3-dimentional topographical analysis showed that H. pylori infected men had cortical thinning in the bilateral lateral temporal, lateral frontal, and right occipital areas compared with non-infected men with the same adjustments (false discovery rate corrected, Q < 0.050). The association remained significant after further adjusting for inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) and metabolic factors (obesity, dyslipidemia, fasting glucose, and blood pressure).

Our results indicate H. pylori infection is associated with neurodegenerative changes in cognitive normal men. H. pylori infection may play a pathophysiologic role in the neurodegeneration and further studies are needed to validate this association.