From the literature review, there seem to be no studies conducted on infection caused by Helicobacter pylori in patients with gastric MALT lymphoma in the KSA region. The present research is an attempt to understand the prevalence of patients infected with H. pylori in the selected region and the role of allelic imbalance of chromosome 3p regions to understand the clinical manifestations and features associated with MALT lymphomagenesis. The researcher analyzed the frequency of infection in patients from the region of Saudi Arabia by examining the data collected from hospitals and biopsy tissue samples as per the recommended protocol. The endoscopic diagnosis was performed to collect biopsy samples. Histology and AP-PCR DNA fingerprinting analyses were performed from the endoscopic gastric mucosal biopsies collected from patients with associated gastric MALT lymphoma. The existence of H. pylori was examined based on the results of gastric mucosal biopsies stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and Steiner's silver stains. MALT, MALT lymphoma tissue samples and H. pylori-positive chronic gastritis were examined for LOH at chromosome 3p24 using standard procedures and techniques. The findings of the paper revealed the H. pylori was found to be positive in 17% of the cases significantly high among the age group of 31-50 years. Patients with MALT, MALT lymphoma, and H. pylori-associated gastritis presented features such as lymphocyte accumulation, vacuolation, Peyer's patch appearance, and lymphatic follicles. H. pylori were found to appear as a dense colored accumulated mass in the gastric epithelial layer. The findings from AP-PCR generated DNA fingerprints revealed intense band including two prominent bands in MALT lymphoma. Among other loci, 3p24 was the only one locus that showed high percentages of LOH as reported earlier in all cancer-related cases. The findings of this research paper empower the fact that allelic imbalances play a vital role in the development of MALT lymphoma. However, future researches should be conducted to identify the chromosome regions of the AP-PCR generated DNA fingerprints of human gastric MALT lymphoma in order to confirm this proposition.
Keywords: AP_PCR; Gastritis; H. pylori; Lymphoma, MALT.