Local and systemic liberation of cytokines in ulcerative colltis

Abstract

Determination of plasmatic and tissular cytokine concentrations in inflammatory bowel diseases have frequently resulted in conflicting data. The aim of this study is to determine, in patients with ucerative colitis (UC), the levels of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, IFNγ and TNFα, liberated by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMC). Peripheral blood and colonic biopsies (5-10) were collected from 10 normal controls and 8 patients with UC. LPMC were isolated by collagenase digestion. LPMC and PBMC were cultured for 48h with pokeweed mitogen (PW) to induce cytokine production. Presence of IL-1β, IL-6, IFNγ and TNFα in the supernatant was detected using ELISA kits. Spontaneous production of IL-6 by PBMC were higher in UC than in controls (2029 pg/ml IC95[-165 - 4223] vs 572 pg/ml [-383 -1527] respectively, p=0.05) and also after activation with PW (14995 pg/ml [7759 - 22230] vs 6598 pg/ml [3240 - 9956] respectively, p=0.05). TNFα i