By: Felicia Z. Paredez |
| A) Attachment of high biofilm forming H. pylori on sanitized cabbage leaf incubated at 4° C. B) Attachment of low biofilm forming H. pylori on sanitized cabbage leaf incubated at 4° C. C) A sanitized cabbage leaf serving as the negative control. The red/yellow circles are the stomata of the cabbage leaves. Imagine taken from Ng et al. 2017. |
If you have ever eaten raw vegetables you might have Helicobacter pylori present in your gut. Although the exact way it is
transmitted is still a mystery. One possible route of
transmission studied by Ng and colleagues was the ability of the bacterium
to survive (outside of the gut) by forming biofilms on raw vegetables. The
formation of biofilms was dependent on the strain of H. pylori and the type of vegetable. It was found that strains with
high biofilm forming ability were able to stay attached to the surfaces of
vegetables longer because they were harder to remove with just basic cleaning
measures like disinfection. In addition, it was found that cabbages were
favored by high biofilm forming strains because of the numerous folds on the
leaves and the accessibility of the stomata. Considering that almost half the worlds population have H. pylori present in their gut and it can develop into gastric diseases, this important study shows one possible way this bacterium may be ending up in digestive systems This study also shows that harmful bacteria can end up on food that we usually don't think needs to be prepared before eating.
Original Article:
Ng CG, Loke MF, Goh KL, Vadivelu J, Ho B. (2017). Biofilm formation enhances Helicobacter pylori survivability in vegetables. Food Microbiol 62:68-76.
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