elafin and Colitis--Ulcerative

Antimicrobial peptide expression is associated with disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. IBD patients have abnormal expression of elafin, a human elastase-specific protease inhibitor and antimicrobial peptide. We determined elafin expression in blood, intestine, and mesenteric fat of IBD and non-IBD patients.. Serum samples from normal and IBD patients were collected from two UCLA cohorts. Surgical resection samples of human colonic and mesenteric fat tissues from IBD and non-IBD (colon cancer) patients were collected from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.. High serum elafin levels were associated with a significantly elevated risk of intestinal stricture in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. Microsoft Azure Machine learning algorithm using serum elafin levels and clinical data identified stricturing CD patients with high accuracy. Serum elafin levels had weak positive correlations with clinical disease activity (Partial Mayo Score and Harvey Bradshaw Index), but not endoscopic disease activity (Mayo Endoscopic Subscore and Simple Endoscopic Index for CD) in IBD patients. Ulcerative colitis (UC) patients had high serum elafin levels. Colonic elafin mRNA and protein expression were not associated with clinical disease activity and histological injury in IBD patients, but stricturing CD patients had lower colonic elafin expression than non-stricturing CD patients. Mesenteric fat in stricturing CD patients had significantly increased elafin mRNA and protein expression, which may contribute to high circulating elafin levels. Human mesenteric fat adipocytes secrete elafin protein.. High circulating elafin levels are associated with the presence of stricture in CD patients. Serum elafin levels may help identify intestinal strictures in CD patients.

Topics: Abdominal Fat; Adipocytes; Adult; Case-Control Studies; Cell Line; Colitis, Ulcerative; Colon; Colonoscopy; Constriction, Pathologic; Crohn Disease; Elafin; Female; Fibroblasts; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Intestinal Mucosa; Intestinal Obstruction; Male; Primary Cell Culture; Prospective Studies; Severity of Illness Index

The expression of elafin in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is controversial. Here, we detected the expression of elafin in the peripheral blood and colonic mucosa of patient with IBD and then explored its role and value in assessing the activity and severity of IBD.. Sixty-eight patients with IBD were selected as an experimental group. The control group included 38 healthy individuals. The expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood leukocytes and in serum was detected by qRT-PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The inflamed and noninflamed tissues were collected by colonoscopy. The expression of elafin in the intestinal mucosa was determined by immunohistochemistry staining and qRT-PCR. The expression of elafin between groups and among each stage of IBD was compared. The correlations of elafin expression with erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein were determined by Spearman's correlation analysis and with clinical disease activity indices (Best Crohn's Disease Activity Index and modified Mayo scores) by Pearson's correlation analysis.. Elafin mRNA levels decreased significantly in active ulcerative colitis (UC) but increased in remission UC. However, in Crohn's disease (CD), we did not detect the aforementioned significant differences. Although serum IL-8 levels increased, serum elafin concentrations decreased both in UC and in CD, but the differences among stages were not significant. The expression of elafin in the inflamed colonic mucosa in both CD and UC was lower than that in the normal mucosa in controls and lower than that in the noninflamed mucosa in IBD. Moreover, the relative expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood leukocytes in UC was negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and modified Mayo scores, and in CD, it was negatively correlated with Best Crohn's Disease Activity Index scores.. Elafin decreased in active patients with IBD and was negatively correlated with disease activity, suggesting that elafin may play a protective role and could be used as an index to evaluate disease activity in IBD.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Blood Sedimentation; C-Reactive Protein; Case-Control Studies; Colitis, Ulcerative; Crohn Disease; Elafin; Female; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Intestinal Mucosa; Leukocytes; Male; Middle Aged; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

To quantify the expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and to explore its value in assessment of the activity and severity of IBD.. From July 1 2015 to August 15 2015, 23 patients with IBD admitted to Peking University First Hospital were selected, including 15 cases with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 8 cases with Crohn's disease (CD). Among those, 5 cases were in remission (UC 3, CD 2), 6 cases were mild active (UC 3, CD 3), 3 cases were moderate active (UC 1, CD 2), and 9 cases were severe active (UC 8, CD 1). A total of 21 healthy individuals were selected as the control group. Peripheral blood samples of IBD patients and healthy controls were collected. The expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood leukocytes was detected by fluorescence quantitative real-time PCR. Mann-Whitney test was performed for comparison between the two groups. The correlation between the expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood and IBD activity score was analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis after transformation of variables.. The median expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood leukocytes in IBD group and control group was 0.005 8 (0.000 2, 0.043 5) and 0.015 3 (0.002 1, 0.175 8), respectively, with no significant difference (P>0.05). However, in the active IBD patients it was lower than that in the controls (0.004 6 (0.000 2, 0.034 8) vs 0.015 3 (0.002 1, 0.175 8), P<0.05) and also lower than that in the remission patients(0.004 6 (0.000 2, 0.034 8) vs 0.023 1 (0.012 6, 0.043 5), P<0.05); in the active UC patients it was lower than that in the controls(0.003 7 (0.000 2, 0.027 0) vs 0.015 3 (0.002 1, 0.175 8), P<0.05). The expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood was negatively correlated with modified Mayo score in UC patients (r=-0.513, P<0.05) and with the Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) of Best score in CD patients (r=-0.889, P<0.05).. The expression of elafin mRNA in peripheral blood in active IBD patients is decreased, which may be correlated with the activity of IBD, and negatively correlated with corresponding disease activity score, suggesting that it may play a protective role in IBD and may be helpful in predicting disease activity.

Topics: Case-Control Studies; Colitis, Ulcerative; Crohn Disease; Elafin; Humans; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Leukocytes; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

The cause and pathophysiology of ulcerative colitis are both mainly unknown. We have previously used whole-genome microarray technique on biopsies obtained from patients with ulcerative colitis to identify 5 changed mucosal transcripts. The aim of this study was to compare mucosal expressions of these five transcripts in ulcerative colitis patients vs. controls, along with the transcript expression in relation to the clinical ulcerative colitis status.. Colonic mucosal specimens from rectum and caecum were taken at ambulatory colonoscopy from ulcerative colitis patients (n = 49) with defined inflammatory activity and disease extension, and from controls (n = 67) without inflammatory bowel disease. The five mucosal transcripts aldolase B, elafin, MST-1, simNIPhom and SLC6A14 were analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR.. Significant transcript differences in the rectal mucosa for all five transcripts were demonstrated in ulcerative colitis patients compared to controls. The grade of transcript expression was related to the clinical disease activity.. The five gene transcripts were changed in patients with ulcerative colitis, and were related to the disease activity. The known biological function of some of the transcripts may contribute to the inflammatory features and indicate a possible role of microbes in ulcerative colitis. The findings may also contribute to our pathophysiological understanding of ulcerative colitis.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Amino Acid Transport Systems; Amino Acid Transport Systems, Neutral; Biopsy; Carrier Proteins; Case-Control Studies; Cecum; Colitis, Ulcerative; Elafin; Female; Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase; Hepatocyte Growth Factor; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Mucous Membrane; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Prospective Studies; Proto-Oncogene Proteins; Rectum; Transcription, Genetic

The cause of ulcerative colitis (UC) is largely unknown. Microarray studies are an efficient way of investigating the various genes involved. Here, we have used whole-genome microarrays to clarify the clinical picture and to identify new biomarkers for improved diagnosis. Rectal biopsies were taken from five UC patients and five matched controls, and RNA transcripts were prepared. After labeling, each sample was individually applied to the microarray chips. All transcripts that were more than 10-fold up-regulated in all five patients were analyzed further in seven additional patients and seven controls using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Of 47,000 transcripts examined, 4 were highly up-regulated in all patients: those encoding elafin, a secreted protease inhibitor, the ion and amino acid transporter B (SLC6A14), and the metabolic enzyme aldolase B, as well as a recently identified transcript named similar to numb-interacting homolog. The up-regulation of these transcripts appears to follow the progression of the disease because elevated expression was detected in the proximal part of the colon in patients with total colitis but not in patients with left-sided colitis. Immunohistologic examination showed very distinct differences in the expression of elafin. Extensive expression was detected in enterocytes and goblet cells of the affected mucosa, whereas there was no detectable expression in unaffected mucosa and in healthy controls. The results implicate four transcripts and proteins of special interest as possible targets for pharmacologic interference and as biomarkers in UC. Of these, elafin may be of special interest because it is a secreted protein that may be measured in body fluids.

Topics: Adult; Biomarkers; Biopsy; Colitis, Ulcerative; Elafin; Female; Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase; Gene Expression; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Middle Aged; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Rectum; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction