Abstract
Genetic research has shaped the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) landscape identifying nearly two hundred risk loci. Nonetheless, the identified variants rendered only a partial success in providing criteria for the differential diagnosis between ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Transcript levels from affected intestinal mucosa may serve as tentative biomarkers for improving classification and diagnosis of IBD. The aim of our study was to identify gene expression profiles specific for UC and CD, in endoscopically affected and normal intestinal colonic mucosa from IBD patients. We evaluated a panel of 84 genes related to the IBD-inflammatory pathway on 21 UC and 22 CD paired inflamed and not inflamed mucosa and on age-matched normal mucosa from 21 non-IBD controls. Two genes in UC (CCL11 and MMP10) and two in CD (C4BPB and IL1RN) showed an upregulation trend in both noninflamed and inflamed mucosa compared to controls. Our results suggest that the transcript levels of CCL11, MMP10, C4BPB, and IL1RN are candidate biomarkers that could help in clinical practice for the differential diagnosis between UC and CD and could guide new research on future therapeutic targets.
Highlights
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are a distinct class of gastrointestinal diseases mainly represented by Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)
We evaluated the gene expression profile of a panel of 84 selected genes in paired mucosa samples of 21 UC and 22 CD patients, and we compared them with the profiles obtained in a group of 21 non-IBD healthy controls
Gene expression analysis was performed on pairs of tissues representing IMUC and NMUC and pairs of tissues representing IMCD and NMCD
Summary
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are a distinct class of gastrointestinal diseases mainly represented by Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). These are chronic diseases characterized by a relapsing remitting course with an increasingly high incidence and prevalence worldwide [1]. CD patients often present complications like intestinal strictures, fistulas, and abscesses [4]. Despite these differences, physiopathological mechanisms, clinical criteria, and therapeutical strategies considerably overlap, but CD and UC seem to be triggered and maintained by differential molecular mechanisms, which are not completely known
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