Abstract
Introduction: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The purpose of this study is to explore the prevalence of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) in UC patients in comparison with healthy subjects using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Methods: In this case-control study, five biopsies of patients with UC and 30 healthy people as controls were selected. Sampling was performed by endoscopic biopsy operation. After DNA extraction, PCR was used to determine EBV genome by specific primers. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test. Results: The results of PCR indicated that EBV genome was detected in 60.0% of samples in the case group, and 36.7% of samples in the control group were positive for EBV. Thus, no significant association was observed between the prevalence of EBV and incidence of UC in comparison with the control group (P = 0.36). Conclusion: The findings presented herein demonstrate no direct molecular evidence to support an association of EBV with UC. These results, do not exclude the possibility oncogenic role of EBV to infect the different colon cell.
Highlights
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous herpes virus that infects and establishes a persistent infection in the host
EBV is associated with a number of human malignancies, including Burkitt lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, etc
EBV has been recognized in colonoscopic biopsy specimens obtained during evaluation and management of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or diagnosed after pathologic examination of the colon
Summary
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous herpes virus that infects and establishes a persistent infection in the host. Give the importance of IBD as the unknown etiology and detection of an infectious agent in these patients might have important implications in treatment and prevention, the present study to investigate the prevalence of EBV in patients with UC in comparison with healthy subjects using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique conducted. In this case-control study, informed consent was received from all patients admitted to the Endoscopy Clinic of Toos and Firoozgar Hospital in Tehran, Iran, between January 2013 and June 2013. All collected tissues were kept frozen under -20 °C until analysis
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