Low levels of antibodies against E. coli and mycobacterial 65kDa heat shock proteins in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Objective And Design: The aim of the present study was to support and extend our initial observation, where we found low levels of antibodies against mycobacterial 65kD heat shock proteins in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For this purpose we tested a new group of 124 patients with IBD, and beside measuring antibodies to Mycobacterium bovis 65kD heat shock protein (Hsp65) and human 60kD heat shock protein (Hsp60) as described previously, we also determined IgG antibody levels to Hsp65 from E. coli, called GroEL.