Effect of areca nut on helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis in mice

Abstract

Areca nut (AN) chewing is a habit of humans in many countries in the Central, Southern and South-east Asia. It is strongly associated with the occurrence of oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancer as well as systemic inflammation. However, the association between AN intake and development of gastric lesionhas not been identified yet. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of AN on gastric diseases using a mouse model for H. pylori infection. There were seven groups; mice fed with normal diet (ND), mice fed with 2.5% AN-containing diet (AD), mice fed with 200 ppm MNU-containing water (MNU), mice fed with normal diet and infected with H. pylori PMSS1 strain (ND/HP), mice fed with 2.5% AN-containing diet and infected with H. pylori PMSS1 strain (AD/HP), mice fed with 200 ppm MNU-containing water and infected with H. pylori PMSS1 strain (MNU/HP), and mice fed with 2.5% AN-containing diet, 200 ppm MNU-containing water and infected with H. pylori PMSS1 strain (AD/MNU/HP). Food intake and body weight gain were monitored weekly during experiments and mice were sacrificed at 10-week after the infection. After sacrifice, stomach weight, H. pylori colonization, and gastric inflammation were determined. The stomach weight was significantly increased in H. pylori-infected groups with the increase in H. pylori colonization, but the two groups showed no significant difference of the stomach weight and the colonization. In histological grading, mononuclear cells infiltration in AD/HP group was more severe than that in ND/HP group. These data suggest that chronic gastric inflammation was aggravated by AN treatment in H. pylori-induced gastric lesion. Furthermore, this animal model will be useful for future experiments to determine the effect of potential carcinogens on H. pylori-induced gastric lesions.