Antibodies against glycoprotein 2 are novel markers of intestinal inflammation in patients with an ileal pouch.

Background And Aims: The Crohn's disease (CD)-specific pancreatic auto-antibodies (PAB), have been recently identified to target glycoprotein 2 (GP2). Pouchitis is an inflammation of the small bowel developing in up to 60% of ulcerative colitis patients undergoing proctocolectomy and ileal pouch anal anastomosis. Occurrence of CD-specific antibodies was reported to be a predictor of pouchitis.