Evaluation of liquid media for growth of Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori has routinely been isolated and grown on solid media. Recently, we have succeeded in obtaining growth of this organism in several liquid media in large volumes, including tryptic soy broth, Mueller-Hinton broth, brucella broth, brain heart infusion broth, and Columbia broth. Growth was tested in the media with and without supplementation. Growth was obtained after incubation under microaerobic conditions and with C02 enrichment. Growth in a stationary system versus that in an agitated system was evaluated. Results from these experiments show that H. pylori can be grown in any of the liquid media tested except buffered yeast extract-a-ketoglutarate if serum is added. No growth was observed on buffered yeast extract--ketoglutarate even with serum and other supplementation. Growth of H. pylori in most of the liquid media with supplements was improved if the culture was incubated in a C02 atmosphere. The findings reported here may be useful in clinical, industrial, and research laboratories that require harvests of large quantities of H. pylori cells. Helicobacter pylori is an organism which has been shown to play a major role in the etiology of type B gastritis (1, 4). H. pylori can be cultured from biopsy specimens on selective and nonselective solid media (3). Growth of H. pylori in liquid media, however, has not been established. There are reports indicating that this organism grows in liquid media under microaerophilic conditions, but only in small volumes (2, 5, 7, 9). Large-scale growth of H. pylori by using GasPak jars or gas-generating chambers on a shaking platform is rather cumbersome. The objective of the study reported here was to facilitate culture of H. pylori in 'large volumes for physiological studies