Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Apr 26, 2015; 7(4): 187-203
Published online Apr 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i4.187
Helicobacter pylori vs coronary heart disease - searching for connections
Magdalena Chmiela, Adrian Gajewski, Karolina Rudnicka
Magdalena Chmiela, Adrian Gajewski, Karolina Rudnicka, Department of Immunology and Infectious Biology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, 90-236 Łódź, Poland
Author contributions: Chmiela M designed and wrote the manuscript; Rudnicka K wrote and edited the manuscript; Gajewski A collected and edited literature.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Magdalena Chmiela, Professor, Chief of Department of Immunology and Infectious Biology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, Banacha 12/16, 90-236 Łódź, Poland. chmiela@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Telephone: +48-42-6354541 Fax: +48-42-6655818
Received: October 23, 2014
Peer-review started: October 24, 2014
First decision: December 26, 2014
Revised: January 16, 2015
Accepted: February 4, 2015
Article in press: February 9, 2015
Published online: April 26, 2015
Processing time: 178 Days and 21 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip:Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a Gram-negative spiral bacterium which colonizes gastric mucosa of nearly half of human population. A characteristic feature of H. pylori infection is an excessive inflammatory response. The majority of H. pylori infections remain asymptomatic. However, still it leads to the development of histological gastritis with the recruitment of immune cells. About 10% of infected subjects develop symptomatic gastritis, erosions or peptic ulcer. Gastric cancer is the most severe consequence of H. pylori infection. Recently, a possible association between chronic infections with H. pylori and extragastric disorders - including coronary heart disease, has been intensively investigated. Here we have revised recent studies confirming or excluding possible connections between chronic bacterial infections and the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD) within different populations, especially in the context of H. pylori infections. We have also presented various study approaches investigating direct and indirect interplay between H. pylori-driven consequences and CHD development to clarify already gained knowledge and suggest future directions. Considering the significance of already conducted research studies, the involvement of H. pylori infection in the process of CHD development is highly probably, however, still a lot need to be done to clarify whether this association is direct (with the involvement of H. pylori antigens and products) or indirect (with the involvement of inflammatory-related molecules accelerating/initiating CHD development).