Evidence for the role of gastric mucosa at the secretion of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (strem-1) in peptic ulcer disease

AIM: To investigate the role of gastric mucosa at the secretion of sTREM-1 in peptic ulcer. METHODS: Seventy two patients were enrolled; 35 with duodenal, 21 with gastric ulcer and 16 with chronic gastritis. Patients were endoscoped and gastric juice was aspirated. Patients with duodenal and gastric ulcer underwent a second endoscopy post-treatment. Biopsies were incubated in the absence/presence of endotoxins or gastric juice. Supernatants were collected and sTREM-1 and TNFα were measured by enzyme immunoabsorbent assays. Scoring of gastritis was performed before and after treatment according to updated Sydney score. RESULTS: Patients with duodenal and gastric ulcer and those with chronic gastritis had similar scores of gastritis. sTREM-1 was higher in supernatants of tissue samples of H pylori-positive than of H pylori-negative patients with gastric ulcer. Median (± SE) sTREM-1 was found increased in supernatants of patients with gastric ulcer before treatment (203.21 ± 88.91 pg/1000 cells) compared to supernatants either from the same patients post-treatment (8.23 ± 5.79 pg/1000 cells) or from patients with chronic gastritis (6.21 ± 0.71 pg/1000 cells) (P < 0.001 and < 0.001, respectively). Similar differences for sTREM-1 were recorded among LPS-stimulated tissue samples of patients (P = 0.001). Similar differences were not found for TNFα. Positive correlations were found between sTREM-1 of supernatants from patients with both duodenal and gastric ulcer before treatment and the degree of infiltration of neutrophils and monocytes. CONCLUSION: sTREM-1 secreted by the gastric mucosa is an independent mechanism connected to the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer. sTREM-1 was released at the presence of H pylori from the inflamed gastric mucosa in the field of gastric ulcer.