Susceptibility of growth factors to degradation by Helicobacter pylori protease: Effect of ebrotidine and sucralfate

In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of the growth factors (EGF, bFGF, TGFβ and PDGF) to degradation by the protease elaborated by H. pylori and assessed the effect of antiulcer agents, ebrotidine and sucralfate, on this enzymatic action of the bacterium. The colonies of H. pylori were washed with saline, filtered to retain the bacteria, and the filtrate used as an enzyme source. The assays revealed that while EGF and βFGF showed only marginal (5-7%) susceptibility to H. pylori protease, a 61.7% degradation occurred with PDGF and 62.3% with TGFβ. Introduction of ebrotidine or sucralfate to the assay system led to the reduction in the rate of growth factors degradation, which at 50 μg/ml ebrotidine reached the value of 85.1% for PDGF and 88.6% for TGFβ, while with sucralfate the optimal inhibition of PDGF (79.6%) and TGFβ (82.7%) degradation occurred at 200 μg/ml. The results demonstrate that PDGF and TGFβ are susceptible to H. pylori degradation and that antiulcer agents, ebrotidine and sucralfate are capable of counteracting this effect.