| We aimed to study the presence of H. pylori in gallstones in Azerbaijan (Iran) by molecular method. A total of 60 gallbladder samples were collected from patients who underwent cholecystectomy. The bile samples and gallbladder tissues with gallstones were considered the experimental group, while subjects without any gallstones (according to pathologist diagnosis) were considered the con-trol group. In total, there were 30 experimental cases and 30 control cases. To determine the pres-ence of H. pylori we performed multiplex PCR. 3 cases (10%) were positive in terms of H. pylori DNA through PCR, of 30 gallbladder samples from patients suffering from gallstones, whereas the PCR results were all negative in the control group. The findings suggested that there was no statis-tically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of H. pylori DNA (P>0.05). This study showed that H. pylori DNA can be found in patients with gallstones. A better understanding of the role of H. pylori will require further studies on larger numbers of pa-tients and controls. However, our results did not reject the likelihood of H. pylori infection as a cofactor in the development of gallstones. |