Search

Background: Urotensin II (U-II) is a vasoactive peptide that interacts with a specific receptor named UTR. Recently, our group has demonstrated increased UTR expression in both human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines and adenomatous polyps, as well as in colon carcinoma samples if compared to healthy colon samples of the same patients. We also showed that an UTR agonist induced an increase in colon adenocarcinoma cell growth in vitro, whereas the UTR block with a specific antagonist caused an inhibition of their growth and an inhibition of about 50% of both motility and cell invasion. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) associated with an increased baseline risk for colon cancer compared with the general population, and this risk is mostly attributed to chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation. This risk increases along with the duration of the disease, as demonstrated by many studies. There are no UTR expression data related to UC, and we therefore evaluated UTR expression in ill colon biopsies and in healthy colon ones of patients with UC and colon biopsies of healthy patients., Methods: We enrolled, prior to informed consent, 11 patients (5 males and 6 females, age range 29-75 years, median age 52 years) with first UC diagnosis compared to 11 healthy controls (6 males and 5 females, age range 30-78 years, median age 55 years). We have therefore sampled inflammatory and healthy tissue in UC patients. We have also taken colic tissue samples in healthy subjects. Evaluation of receptor expression was performed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western Blot analysis. The ANOVA Test (P<0.05) was used for statistical analysis., Results: We found: 1) increased expression of UTR in 11/11 UC patients with ill mucosa biopsies compared to healthy controls in RT-PCR and in Western Blot analysis; 2) increased UTR expression in 11/11 UC patients with ill colon biopsies compared to the results obtained from healthy colon biopsies of the same patients both in RT-PCR and in Western Blot analysis; 3) increased UTR expression in 9/11 UC patients healthy colon biopsy specimens compared to healthy controls., Conclusions: UTR could be considered as an inflammatory UC disease marker because its expression is greater in the mucosa of ill colon than in the healthy colon of the same patients and compared to healthy controls.

Background: Anaemia (AN) is frequently associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and can negatively influence the quality of life of patients., Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and causes of AN in IBD., Methods: We prospectively performed a one-year multicentre observational study including all IBD cases attending six Units. We also investigated patients' main serological parameters., Results: The study population included 965 IBD patients (582 CD; 383 UC), of whom 142 were in-patients and 823 out-patients. AN was diagnosed in 134 out of 965 IBD patients (14%). No significant difference in AN prevalence was observed between CD and UC. The prevalence of AN was higher in the hospitalized IBD (26% in- vs. 11.7% out-patients; p<0.01; OR 2.2) and in active disease (CD: 34% active vs. 16% inactive; p<0.01; OR 2.1 - UC: 26% active vs. 19% inactive; p=0.03; OR 1.3). Iron deficiency was present in 72 patients (53.7%), AN of chronic diseases in 12 (8.2%), mixed type AN in 11 (8.2%), thalassemia in 9 (6.7%), and macrocytic AN in 8 (5.9%)., Conclusions: In Southern Italy, AN is common in IBD and is more frequent in active disease and hospitalized patients. Iron deficiency still remains the major cause of AN in IBD., (Copyright © 2015 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)