PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Molecular genotyping of anisakis larvae in Middle Eastern Japan and endoscopic evidence for preferential penetration of normal over atrophic mucosa.

  • Toshio Arai,
  • Nobuaki Akao,
  • Takenori Seki,
  • Takashi Kumagai,
  • Hirofumi Ishikawa,
  • Nobuo Ohta,
  • Nobuto Hirata,
  • So Nakaji,
  • Kenji Yamauchi,
  • Mitsuru Hirai,
  • Toshiyasu Shiratori,
  • Masayoshi Kobayashi,
  • Hiroyuki Fujii,
  • Eiji Ishii,
  • Mikio Naito,
  • Shin-ichi Saitoh,
  • Toshikazu Yamaguchi,
  • Nobumitsu Shibata,
  • Masamune Shimo,
  • Toshihiro Tokiwa

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089188
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 2
p. e89188

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease caused primarily by Anisakis spp. larvae in Asia and in Western countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the genotype of Anisakis larvae endoscopically removed from Middle Eastern Japanese patients and to determine whether mucosal atrophy affects the risk of penetration in gastric anisakiasis. METHODS: In this study, 57 larvae collected from 44 patients with anisakiasis (42 gastric and 2 colonic anisakiasis) were analyzed retrospectively. Genotyping was confirmed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of ITS regions and by sequencing the mitochondrial small subunit (SSU) region. In the cases of gastric anisakiasis, correlation analyses were conducted between the frequency of larval penetration in normal/atrophic area and the manifestation of clinical symptoms. RESULTS: Nearly all larvae were A. simplex seusu stricto (s.s.) (99%), and one larva displayed a hybrid genotype. The A. simplex larvae penetrated normal mucosa more frequently than atrophic area (p = 0.005). Finally, patients with normal mucosa infection were more likely to exhibit clinical symptoms than those with atrophic mucosa infection (odds ratio, 6.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.52-31.8). CONCLUSIONS: In Japan, A. simplex s.s. is the main etiological agent of human anisakiasis and tends to penetrate normal gastric mucosa. Careful endoscopic examination of normal gastric mucosa, particularly in the greater curvature of the stomach will improve the detection of Anisakis larvae.