Helicobacter pylori

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Helicobacter pylori, previously known as Campylobacter pylori, is a gram-negative bacterium best known for its role in infecting the human stomach, often causing gastric ulcers and sometimes stomach cancer. Its helical body (from which the genus name Helicobacter derives) is thought to have evolved to penetrate the mucous lining of the stomach, helped by its flagella, and thereby establish infection. Mutants can have a rod or curved rod shape that exhibits less virulence. While many earlier reports of an association between bacteria and gastric ulcers had existed, such as the works of John Lykoudis, it was only in 1983 when the bacterium was formally described for the first time as the causal agent of gastric ulcers by Australian physician-scientists Barry Marshall and Robin Warren. In 2005, the pair was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery. Infection of the stomach with H. pylori does not necessarily cause illness: over half of the global population is...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Yutaka Tsutsumi, M.D. Professor Department of Pathology Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Copyrighted free use