Target Audience

Des Moines University faculty, staff, and students.

Purpose

Helicobacter pylori infects the human stomach and causes a spectrum of disease that includes gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric adenocarcinoma. A chronic, neutrophil-rich inflammatory response characterizes this infection. Dr. Whitmore's research demonstrates that neutrophils infected with H. pylori display cell surface changes and have a significantly longer lifespan. Moreover, preliminary data suggest that H. pylori-infected neutrophils may generate neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), incrementally releasing their DNA into the extracellular space where it can be used by H. pylori as a purine source. H. pylori may therefore exploit neutrophil lifespan plasticity and alternative cell death mechanisms as part of a virulence strategy to create a milieu that favors bacterial persistence.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize the importance of studying neutrophil and H. pylori interactions, especially in the context of increasing antibiotic resistance.
• Distinguish between normal neutrophil cell death by apoptosis and atypical neutrophil death such as observed in H. pylori-infected neutrophils.

Speaker

Laura C. Whitmore, PhD
Inflammation Program, University of Iowa