Fig. 4.

Gastric Il-17A mRNA levels and correlation with the severity of H. pylori-induced gastric pathology. (A) For 6 to 11 months, Il-17A mRNA levels in gastric tissues from mice (n = 13 to 15 per group) infected with H. pylori, H. muridarum, or H. hepaticus or from HmHp or HhHp mice were evaluated by Q-PCR. The gastric tissues from mice infected with H. bilis alone or from HbHp mice, as described previously (28), were also included in this assay, since these mice were matched with those used in the present study for age, gender, and infection paradigm and this previously published study was conducted at the same time the current study was performed. Expression levels of gastric Il-17A mRNA were normalized to mRNA levels of the housekeeping gene Gapdh. The y axis represents the mean fold changes (± standard deviations) of the mRNA levels in reference to uninfected controls (C). (B) Linear regression between gastric Il-17A mRNA levels (fold change in reference to the sham controls; x axis) and gastric histologic activity index (HAI; y axis) for all infection and control groups shown in panel A. P values compared to those of the sham controls: *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001.