Mediators of Inflammation in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children remains a challenging problem. Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis are characterized by an activation of intestinal mononuclear cells and T-cells within the inflammed lesions. In the present study, we determined whether circulating inflammatory mediators, such as interleukins and adhesion molecules, may represent useful markers of immune activation in vivo. Serum concentrations of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, sIL-2R, sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were measured by a quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 18 patients with IBD and 25 healthy subjects matched for age and sex (control group). According to our results, all the inflammatory mediators are significantly increased in patients with IBD as compared to the control group. Pro-inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-8, IL-10) are elevated in the serum of patients with active disease, suggesting that they act as naturally occuring initiators of the acute inflammatory process. Increased IL-2 and sIL-2R levels reflect T-cell activation. Increased circulating sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 levels may reflect increased adhesiveness and signal transmission across cells, probably as a result of shedding of the parent molecule during local cellular immunoresponses in vivo. The measurement of inflammatory mediators may be a useful adjunct to the clinical assessment and to the routine laboratory testing of IBD pediatric patients.