Figure 1.

The inflammatory response on gastric biopsies from patients infected with cagA⁻/vacA^s1m2 or cagA⁺/vacA^s1m2 strains of H. pylori. (A) Histological scores of inflammation (H&E staining) in the gastric mucosa of patients without H. pylori infection and those infected with cagA⁻/vacA^s1m2 or cagA⁺/vacA^s1m2 strains of H. pylori. The intensity of staining is shown in the right graph and the data are expressed as mean±SEM. (B) mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines in gastric mucosa of patients without H. pylori (n = 8), patients infected with cagA⁻/vacA^s1m2 (n = 7), and those infected with cagA⁺/vacA^s1m2 (n = 8). All real-time PCR data are normalized to β-actin and expressed as fold change. Experiments performed in triplicate showed consistent results. ^*P < 0.05, or ^**P < 0.01.