Abstract
Crohn's Disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The search continues for new markers for assessing the activity of CD. Among them, pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines appear promising. We performed the analysis of cytokine concentrations in blood serum using the Bio-Plex Multiplex system (Bio-Rad), and their correlations with radiological parameters were assessed by magnetic resonance enterography (MRE), and fecal calprotectin levels were measured quantitatively by ELISA and clinical evaluation according to the Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI). Our study found that measuring cytokine serum concentrations can be a valuable tool in the diagnosis and treatment of CD. Positive correlations were reported between contrast enhancement on DCE-MRE and the concentrations of PDGF-BB and RANTES. Also, a positive correlation was found between the delayed-phase of DCE and IL-10 concentration, a strong negative correlation between the delayed-phase of DCE and IL-12 concentration, and a strong positive correlation between the delayed-phase of DCE and RANTES concentrations. A strong positive correlation was also observed between the thickness of the intestinal wall on T2-weighted images and RANTES concentration. Therefore, concentrations of PDGF-BB, RANTES, IL-10 and IL-12 are promising markers of CD activity. The study also demonstrated significant correlations between the severity of disease activity assessed by the CDAI and the concentrations of IL-5, IL-8 and IL-9, as well as positive correlations between the levels of fecal calprotectin and the concentrations of IL-1RA and VEGF. Therefore, the levels of IL-5, IL-8, IL-9, VEGF and IL-1RA may be useful markers in the diagnosis and clinical assessment of disease activity.