The Gene Expression of Protease Inhibitors and Cathelicidin Antimicrobial Peptide in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background: The term Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) covers both Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn s Disease (CD). Genetic susceptibility together with environmental factors disturb intestinal homeostasis, resulting in chronic and repeated inflammation-remission cycles. Despite the differences between UC and CD, there are cases where a definite diagnosis cannot be made, resulting in a diagnosis of non-specific colitis. Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) have been identified as essential peptides in the maintenance of intestinal barrier function and immune homeostasis and they show increased expression in both inflamed UC and CD Aim of Work: To detect the expression of AMPs genes in patients with IBD and study their impact on clinical presentation of Egyptian patients with IBD. Patients and Methods: This is a cross sectional study that was conducted on 20 adult subjects having IBD referred to Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Liver Unit. Twenty adult subjects were non IBD patients studied as case control. All subjects were submitted to complete medical history, physical examination, laboratory investigations and colonoscopic examination Results: Patients with IBD have increased mucosal expression of elafin, SLPI and CAMP, which may trigger proinflammatory activity. Also, the colonic mucosal gene expression of elafin, SLPI and CAMP in IBD patients is directly related to the disease severity