Alimentary TractInterleukin 18 is a potent proliferative factor for intestinal mucosal lymphocytes in Crohn's disease☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Patients and samples
Serum samples were obtained from 21 patients with CD, 23 patients with UC, and 15 healthy controls. Human sera were separated by Vacutainer (Becton Dickinson, Bedford, MA).
Mucosal samples were obtained from the inflamed areas and noninflamed areas of intestinal mucosa of 29 patients with CD (16 surgical specimens and 13 biopsy specimens; 19 inflamed and 10 noninflamed specimens). The primary site of involvement was ileal in 12, ileocolonic in 10, and colonic in 7 patients. Controls included (1)
Serum IL-18 concentration
As shown in Figure 1A, serum IL-18 concentration in normal controls ranged from 0 to 139.0 pg/mL, with an average of 37.7 pg/mL, whereas the IL-18 concentration in the sera of CD patients was significantly (P < 0.001) higher, ranging between 41.0 and 240.3 pg/mL, (average, 122.2 pg/mL).
Discussion
IL-18 has been shown to contribute to Th1-mediated immune responses and chronic inflammation. However, the role of IL-18 in mucosal immune responses and intestinal inflammation is not fully understood. In this study we show that serum IL-18 levels are significantly higher in CD, which is a human Th1-mediated chronic inflammatory bowel disease. In contrast, serum IL-18 concentration was not statistically higher in UC compared with normal controls. This is the first study to describe increased
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Daniel Podolsky for critical comments, Dr. Hiromichi Ishikawa for helpful discussion; Drs. Yasuo Hosoda, Motomi Yamazaki, Haruhiko Ogata, and Yasushi Iwao for technical assistance; Drs. Masahiko Watanabe, Akira Tsuyuki, Masaki Kitajima, and Akira Sugita for providing the specimens; and Miss Reiko Fujisaki for manuscript preparation.
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Address requests for reprints to: Toshifumi Hibi, M.D., Keio Cancer Center, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan. e-mail: [email protected]; fax: (81) 3-3357-6156.
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Supported in part by grants-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare; Chiyoda Mutual Life Foundation; Japan Health Sciences Foundation; Keio University; and Keio University Medical Fund.