While known for its work with minority and

they are most likely responsible for down-regulating

underserved populations across the United States,

that inflammatory response among children.“ The

the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has recently

T-regulatory cell responses likely down-regulate the

taken steps to expand its research efforts globally.

gastric inflammation in children, thereby contributing

As part of this, UAB researchers, led by Cancer

to the markedly reduced incidence of gastroduodenal

Center senior scientist Phillip Smith, M. D., and

ulcer disease and the absence of gastric cancer in

Catolica University researchers, led by director of

children compared with adults, even though in Chile

pediatric gastroenterology Paul Harris, M. D., are

both have the same H pylori burden, virulence factor

conducting innovative studies in the South American

prevalence and H pylori genotype,” Dr. Smith says.

nation of Chile. Much of the work involves the

This raises an interesting question – why do

bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori. H pylori, as it

children have increased gastric T-regulatory cell

is more commonly referred, is the leading cause of

responses that appear to down-regulate inflammatory

gastric cancers worldwide and is also a leading cause of gastric inflammation, ulcers and other malignancies. H pylori colonizes in the stomach and is usually acquired early in childhood. It is much more prevalent in the developing world, particularly in Asia, Africa, certain parts of Eastern Europe and South America.

response?

Understanding Bacteria

To answer that question, Drs. Smith and Harris and their colleagues are working with the Cancer Center’ s microbiome research core to examine the

While known for its work with minority and underserved populations

By JOSH TILL

Its presence is more than likely related to hygiene, as studies have shown that improved hygiene in Europe and the United States dramatically decreased H pylori levels in those populations.

In Chile, however, H pylori rates are extremely high, and H pylori-associated gastric cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related mortality. While studying H pylori infections, Dr. Smith and his team have made some interesting discoveries.

“ We have discovered that children have a markedly reduced gastric inflammatory response to H pylori compared with that of infected adults, despite living in the same city and even the same area within that city,” Dr. Smith says.“ We’ ve also shown that infected children have reciprocally increased T-regulatory cell responses in their stomach mucosa.”

microbiota( the community of bacteria that live on and inside a human body) in children and adults in Chile, with and without H pylori infection.

“ We have found that H pylori-infected children harbor a significantly different microbiota than uninfected children, and certain components of that gastric microbiota are different in H pyloriinfected children versus H pylori-infected adults,” says Dr. Smith.““ Thus, H pylori infection appears to restructure the gastric microbiota in children and is associated with increased T-regulatory cells in the gastric mucosa. We’ re very excited about this new information because it suggests that a key difference between the gastric response of children and adults to H pylori infection may involve the accompanying stomach microbiota.”

across the United States, the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has recently taken steps to expand its research efforts globally.

Those T-regulatory cells are present in significantly

If scientists can understand this interaction among

higher rates in children compared to adults, and

H pylori, microbiota and T-regulatory cells in children,