Do Heliobacter Pylori outer membrane vescicles compromise the integrity of gastric epethelial cells?

Gastric carriage of Helicobacter pylori occurs in more than half of all humans and is always associated with gastritis, the host inflammatory response to colonisation.  In most infected persons, H. pylori persist in the absence of clinical illness.  However, prolonged infection is recognised as an independent risk factor for gastric cancer.  Variation amongst H. pylori strains coupled with diversity in individual host and/or environmental factors increases this risk but an understanding of the relative importance of the individual factors remains elusive.H. pylori infection is thought to predispose to cancer by increasing epithelial cell turnover and there is increasing evidence of how these bacteria affect this response via the induction of host inflammatory responses.  We are particularly interested in the role of small outer membrane vesicles (OMV) in the progression of H. pylori-associated-disease.