Complement activation capacity in plasma before and during high-dose prednisolone treatment and tapering in exacerbations of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Abstract Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) are characterized by intestinal inflammation mainly caused by a disturbance in the balance between cytokines and increased complement (C) activation. Our aim was to evaluate possible associations between C activation capacity and prednisolone treatment. Methods Plasma from patients with exacerbations of UC (n = 18) or CD (n = 18) were collected before and during high dose prednisolone treatment (1 mg/kg body weight) and tapering. Friedman's two way analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed-rank sum test were used Results Before treatment, plasma from CD patients showed significant elevations in all C-mediated analyses compared to the values obtained from 38 healthy controls (p Conclusion Our findings indicate that C activation capacity is up-regulated significantly in plasma from CD patients. The decreases observed after prednisolone treatment reflect a general down-regulation in immune activation.