Dynamics of Helicobacter pylori colonization in relation to the host response -- Data Supplement - Supplemental Data -- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Supplementary material for Blaser and Kirschner (1999) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96(15), 8359-8364.

Fig. 5.
Immune dysfunction. This figure represents the dynamics of two competing strains of Helicobacter pylori. All parameters are the same as those in Table 2, except that for strain 2, the washout rate is identical to that in Fig. 4B. At day 1800 (approximately 5 years), the immune system is compromised by an event external to H. pylori (e.g., HIV infection). This would affect the host response; hence, we reduced by half the capacity of the host response (i.e., changed k₂ from 80 to 40). The second strain outcompetes the first strain, and, because the immune system is now dysfunctional, the "winning"' microbe population can grow without bound (compare with Fig. 5B). This scenario could consequently lead to the gastric hypofunction sometimes observed in patients with AIDS [Meiselman, M. S., Miller Catchpole, R., Christ, M. & Randal, E. (1988) Gastroenterology 95, 209-212].