Two-year follow-up ofHelicobacter pylori infection in C57BL/6 and Balb/cAmice

infection in C57BL/6 and Balb/cA mice. APMIS 2003;111:514–22. Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric adenocar-cinoma and MALT lymphoma. We previously found high-grade lymphoma after 13 months ’ H. pylori infection in C57BL/6 mice. In this study we followed H. pylori infection by three different isolates in C57BL/6 and Balb/cA mice for 23 months. Six-week-old C57BL/6 and Balb/cA mice were infected with H. pylori strains 119p (CagAπ, VacAπ), SS1 (CagAπ, VacAπ) and G50 (CagA-, VacA-). Mice were followed at 2 weeks, 10 weeks and 23 months post-inoculation (p.i.) by culture, histopathology and serology. Strain G50 was only reisolated from mice 2 weeks p.i. There was no difference in colonization between strain 119p and SS1 at 10 weeks p.i., whereas SS1 gave 100 % colonization versus 119p gave 50 % 23 months p.i.. Interestingly, the inflammation score was higher in mice infected with strain 119p than with SS1 10-week p.i., and there were lymphoepithelial lesions in mice infected with strain 119p and G50 but not with SS1 at 23 months post-infection. Eight mice infected with strains 119p and G50 developed gastric lymphoma (grade 5 and 4). One C57BL/6 mouse infected with strain 119p developed hepatocellular carcinoma after 23 months. Immunoblot showed specific bands of 26– 33 kDa against H. pylori in infected mice, and two mice infected with strain SSI reacted with anti-bodies to the 120 kDa CagA toxin. Conclusion: A reproducible animal model for H. pylori-induced lymphoma and possibly hepatocellu-lar carcinoma is described. Strain diversity may lead to different outcomes of H. pylori infection. Key words: Helicobacter pylori; lymphoma; hepatocellular carcinoma; C57BL/6 and Balb/cA mice