Role of gastric pH in isolation of Helicobacter mustelae from the feces of ferrets.

BACKGROUND

Helicobacter mustelae colonizes the gastric mucosa of ferrets and causes persistent chronic gastritis.

METHODS

Hypochlorhydria, as measured by gastric pH probe, was induced by administering oral omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor of the parietal cell, to adult ferrets in two separate experiments. Feces of ferrets were cultured for H. mustelae before, during, and after omeprazole therapy.

RESULTS

H. mustelae was isolated in 23 of 55 (41.8%) sequential fecal samples collected during omeprazole therapy. The same ferrets with acidic gastric pH had H. mustelae isolated in 6 of 62 (9.7%) of the fecal cultures (P < 0.01). A DNA species-specific H. mustelae probe confirmed the presence of the organism in both the stomach and feces of all 5 ferrets. In 4 of 5 ferrets restriction enzyme patterns of the gastric H. mustelae were identical to those of the fecal H. mustelae strains.

CONCLUSIONS

Hypochlorhydria promotes fecal transmission of a gastric Helicobacter organism. The H. mustelae-colonized ferret provides an ideal model to study the epidemiology and pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis.