Inflammatory bowel disease — is there something new in the immunological background?

Abstract

In the present paper we correlate clinical data, as well as histopathological, immunohistochemicaland molecular biology methods, with the occurrence of both forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) i.e.ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. We found that patients with a history of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) orcytomegalovirus (CMV) infections, as well as steroid treatment, had increased susceptibility to the developmentof IBD. The diagnosis of IBD was confirmed by histopathology. Previous infections by EBV and CMV, as well asM. tuberculosis, were proved by PCR-based techniques and in situ hybridization. We found PCR-proved latentviral infections in 30–50% of the IBD patients we studied. However, we were unable to prove the presence ofviral antigens by immunohistochemistry for EBV or CMV. We found positive correlations between the presenceof anti-CMV IgG, as well as PCR-positive results for M. tuberculosis with an ulcerative colitis diagnosis. Additionally,up to 80% of IBD patients used steroids, which was found to be correlated with a diagnosis of Crohn’sdisease. Our data may support the theory that IBD could be related to previous viral infections and the use ofsteroids.

Keywords

• inflammatory bowel disease
• histopathology
• EBV
• CMV