Presence of Multiple “ Helicobacter heilmannii ” Strains in an Individual Suffering from Ulcers and in His Two Cats

Abstract

ABSTRACT Circumstantial evidence suggests that “ Helicobacter heilmannii ” infection is an example of zoonosis. The presence of “ H. heilmannii ” strains in a human subject with acute gastric erosions, in his two cats, and in two unrelated cats was analyzed, and the genetic relatedness of the human and feline strains was assessed. A 580-bp, PCR-amplified sequence of “ H. heilmannii ” urease B gene ( ureB ) obtained from biopsies from the human subject and his two cats was restricted with Alu I and cloned for sequencing. Analysis of the restriction fragment length polymorphism of the ureB -amplified product suggested the presence of different individual “ H. heilmannii ” strains in the cats and of three distinct strains in the human subject. One of the “ H. heilmannii ” ureB sequences amplified from the human subject’s biopsies was identical to that derived from one of his cats. The degree of similarity between the other “ H. heilmannii ” human and feline nucleotide sequences was higher than 97%. Most of the base substitutions were conservative. We conclude that human and animal “ H. heilmannii ” strains are closely related and that humans can be infected by more than one “ H. heilmannii ” strain, as has been observed for Helicobacter pylori.