EXPRESSION OF APOPTOSIS FACTORS IN PORTAL HYPERTENSIVE GASTROPATHY AND ASSOCIATION WITH HELICOBACTER PYLORI INFECTION

Introduction. Despite the fact that portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) developing in patients with portal hypertension (PH) is a serious clinical problem, its pathogenesis remains to be poorly studied. The aim of our research was to study the proapoptotic protein Bax and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 expression in epithelial cells of gastric mucosa in patients with PHG, and to find the association between Helicobacter pylori infection, the PHG severity and the content of these factors of apoptosis. Methods. Immunohistochemical research was held on the gastric mucosa biopsies of patients with PHG, hepatic cirrhosis and PH without signs of PHG. The normal gastric mucosa examples constituted the control group. Results. We haven’t revealed statistically reliable differences between groups of patients in dependence on H. pylori presence, and association between the degree of PHG severity and H. pylori. Bax expression in gastric epithelial cells in PHG patients was significantly lower than in control group (р