Gastric Pathophysiological Ins and Outs of Helicobacter pylori: A review

Helicobacter pylori infection induces chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric cancer and a number of related extragastric morbidities. Hence, it is now recognised as a worldwide problem. Although clinical outcomes are dependent upon bacterial virulence factors, host genetic diversity and environment, but the major focus of this review is on recent findings relevant to bacterial factors and gastric pathophysiology of H. pylori infection. This article presents a review of the published literature mainly from year 2000 to 2012. The topics of main concerns were bacterial virulent factors and the inflammatory response to H. pylori infection. The authors used MeSH terms Helicobacter with pathophysiology, pathogenesis, or gastric inflammation to search the PubMed database. All relevant studies identified were included and are described according to the aforementioned subheadings.