Immunological status of the stomach in inflammatory bowel disease--comparison between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Background/aims: Ulcerative colitis (UC) mainly affects the colon and rectum, whereas the chronic inflammatory process in Crohn's disease (CD) can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. Recently, however, upper gastrointestinal lesions have been reported in UC patients. In this study, we investigated the immunological status of the stomach in UC or CD patients.

Methods: 26 patients each with UC, CD or functional dyspepsia (FD) underwent diagnostic upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and biopsy specimens were obtained from the gastric antrum. The contents of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 in the organ culture supernatants of antral mucosal tissues were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results: Endoscopically abnormal findings in the stomach were more frequent in CD than in UC or FD patients. Mononuclear cell infiltration and IL-6 production in the gastric antrum did not significantly differ between UC and FD patients, but were higher in those with CD. There was no significant difference in neutrophil infiltration or IL-8 production between UC, CD, and FD patients.

Conclusions: UC patients did not show the immunological abnormalities in the stomach seen in CD patients.