It is widely accepted that both qualitative and quantitative differences in cytokine expression determine the extent of mucosal damage in different intestinal pathologies.¹ However, few comparative analyses of these conditions have been published to date.

We analysed mRNA expression of several cytokines and effector molecules in intestinal biopsies by real time polymerase chain reaction (summary of study groups and results are shown in table 1). These included samples from healthy controls (duodenal biopsies from patients suspected of having an intestinal pathology, later ruled out), non-specific small bowel inflammation (mild histological changes in the biopsy consisting of a non-specific …