ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2008
Persistence of Helicobacter pylori in heterotrophic drinking-water biofilms.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- How long do pathogens persist and survive in water? A systematic review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Association Between Intermittent Water Supply andJGH open : an open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2026Article
- On the Role of Food in the Transmission ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Molecular Mechanisms of Biofilm Formation inAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Colonization of Dental Unit Waterlines byInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Article
- Helicobacter pylori Biofilm Formation and Its Potential Role in Pathogenesis.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2018Review
- Article
- Identification of Factors Associated with Biofilm Formation Ability in the Clinical Isolates ofIranian journal of biotechnology · 2017Article
- Characterization of Key Helicobacter pylori Regulators Identifies a Role for ArsRS in Biofilm Formation.Journal of bacteriology · 2016Article
- Helicobacter pylori in bottled mineral water: genotyping and antimicrobial resistance properties.BMC microbiology · 2016Article
- Environmental risk factors associated with Helicobacter pylori seroprevalence in the United States: a cross-sectional analysis of NHANES data.Epidemiology and infection · 2015Article
- Contaminated water as a source of Helicobacter pylori infection: A review.Journal of advanced research · 2015Review
- Environmental (Saprozoic) Pathogens of Engineered Water Systems: Understanding Their Ecology for Risk Assessment and Management.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2015Review
- Common features of opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2015Review
- Biofilm Formation by Helicobacter pylori and Its Involvement for Antibiotic Resistance.BioMed research international · 2015Review
- Methods for Detecting the Environmental Coccoid Form of Helicobacter pylori.Frontiers in public health · 2015Review
- Biofilms and Helicobacter pylori: Dissemination and persistence within the environment and host.World journal of gastrointestinal pathophysiology · 2014Review
- Biofilm and Helicobacter pylori: from environment to human host.World journal of gastroenterology · 2014Review
- Listeria monocytogenes can form biofilms in tap water and enter into the viable but non-cultivable state.Microbial ecology · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although the route of transmission of Helicobacter pylori remains unknown, drinking water has been considered a possible transmission vector. It has been shown previously that, in water, biofilms are a protective niche for several pathogens, protecting them from stressful conditions, such as low carbon concentration, shear stress, and less-than-optimal temperatures. In this work, the influence of these three parameters on the persistence and cultivability of H. pylori in drinking-water biofilms was studied. Autochthonous biofilm consortia were formed in a two-stage chemostat system and then inoculated with the pathogen. Total numbers of H. pylori cells were determined by microscopy using a specific H. pylori 16S rRNA peptide nucleic acid probe, whereas cultivable cells were assessed by standard plating onto selective H. pylori medium. Cultivable H. pylori could not be detected at any time point, but the ability of H. pylori cells to incorporate, undergo morphological transformations, persist, and even agglomerate in biofilms for at least 31 days without a noticeable decrease in the total cell number (on average, the concentration was between 1.54 x 10(6) and 2.25 x 10(6) cells cm(-2)) or in the intracellular rRNA content may indicate that the loss of cultivability was due to entry into a viable but noncultivable state. Unlike previous results obtained for pure-culture H. pylori biofilms, shear stress did not negatively influence the numbers of H. pylori cells attached, suggesting that the autochthonous aquatic bacteria have an important role in retaining this pathogen in the sessile state, possibly by providing suitable microaerophilic environments or linking biomolecules to which the pathogen adheres. Therefore, biofilms appear to provide not only a safe haven for H. pylori but also a concentration mechanism so that subsequent sloughing releases a concentrated bolus of cells that might be infectious and that could escape routine grab sample microbiological analyses and be a cause of concern for public health.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.