While the influence of water in
Helicobacter pylori
culturability and membrane integrity has been extensively
studied, there are little data concerning the effect of this environment on virulence properties. Therefore, we studied
the culturability of water-exposed
H. pylori and determined whether there was any relation with the bacterium’s
ability to adhere, produce functional components of pathogenicity and induce inflammation and alterations in apoptosis
in an experimental model of human gastric epithelial cells.
H. pylori partially retained the ability to adhere to
epithelial cells even after complete loss of culturability. However, the microorganism is no longer effective in eliciting
in vitro host cell inflammation and apoptosis, possibly due to the non-functionality of the cag type IV secretion
system. These
H. pylori-induced host cell responses, which are lost along with culturability, are known to increase
epithelial cell turnover and, consequently, could have a deleterious effect on the initial H. pylori colonisation process.
The fact that adhesion is maintained by
H. pylori to the detriment of other factors involved in later infection
stages appears to point to a modulation of the physiology of the pathogen after water exposure and might provide the
microorganism with the necessary means to, at least transiently, colonise the human stomach.