Serum Pepsinogens, Gastrin-17 and Helicobacter pylori Antibody in the Residents of Two Cities in China with Distinct Mortality Rates of Gastric Cancer

Serum Pepsinogens, Gastrin-17 and Helicobacter pylori Antibody in the Residents of Two Cities in China with Distinct Mortality Rates of Gastric Cancer

KUI-CHENG ZHENG,^1,2 KAZUO AOKI,³ XIAO-QING LI,¹ SHU-GUANG LIN,¹ BING-SHAN WU,¹ WEN-LING ZHONG,¹ TIE-HUI CHEN,¹ SONG LIN,⁴ JIAN-WANG YOU⁵ and CHANG SU¹

¹Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Fuzhou, P.R. China
²Fujian Medical University School of Public Health, Fuzhou, P.R. China
³Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan
⁴Fuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Fuan, P.R. China
⁵Changle Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changle, P.R. China

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors causing death in Fujian Province, China. However, the mortality of gastric cancer is greatly varied in different areas in Fujian; for example, the mortality in Changle City is 7.4 times higher than that in Fuan City. In this study, we compared the differences in serological parameters, pepsinogen (PG) I, PG II, gastrin-17 (G-17), and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) antibody, between the two cities. It has been reported that low serum PG I is correlated with atrophic gastritis, a high-risk condition for developing gastric cancer, while high serum G-17 has been used for serological detection of atrophic corpus gastritis. We recruited 224 healthy subjects in Changle and 229 healthy subjects in Fuan, matched in age and sex. The serum levels of PG II and G-17 were significantly higher in Changle than those in Fuan. Importantly, the frequency of the subjects with low serum PG I (< 25 μg/L) was significantly higher in Changle than in Fuan, although the serum PG I levels were similar between the two cities. Moreover, the percentage of the subjects with high serum G-17 (≥ 2 pmol/L) and the positive rate of serum IgG antibody against H. pylori were significantly higher in Changle than those in Fuan. The detected differences in these serological parameters are consistent with the notion that the prevalence of atrophic gastritis may be higher in Changle than in Fuan, which results in a higher risk condition for developing gastric cancer in Changle.

keywords —— atrophic gastritis; gastric cancer; gastrin; Helicobacter pylori antibody; pepsinogen

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2012, 228, 289-294

Correspondence: Kui-Cheng Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 76, Jin-Tai Road, Fuzhou, Fujian Province 350001, P.R. China.

e-mail: kuizheng@hotmail.com