Interleukin 113 in biopsy specimens from inflamed colonic mucosa of patients with active inflammatory bowel disease was studied. Compared with normal colonic mucosal biopsy specimens, a significantly greater amount of interleukin ,13 was present in rectal mucosa before (median (range) 4*3 (2-0-11.8) v 119-2 (30.1-286.8) pg/mg; p<001) and produced during organ culture (39.1 (9.4-106-8) Interleukin 1 has been shown to be a mediator of a number of inflammatory and immunological responses." The precise mechanisms leading to inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease remain to be determined, however, and the mode of action of the therapeutically active drug 5-aminosalicylic acid is not clear. There are good reasons to believe that interleukin may be implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.' Its functional properties include T lymphocyte activation,4 enhanced antibody synthesis by B lymphocytes,5 and increased fibroblast proliferation.6 It induces adhesion molecules on endothelial cells which facilitate migration of polymorphonuclear leucocytes and mononuclear cells to sites of inflammation.7 It is also an endogenous pyrogen and induces synthesis of acute phase proteins by hepatocytes.2Enhanced production of interleukin 113 by mononuclear cells isolated from colonic mucosa with active inflammatory bowel disease has been shown.8 In the present study, we investigated whether the therapeutically active drug 5-aminosalicylic acid could inhibit interleukin 113 production by biopsy specimens from inflamed colons, and compared it with sulphapyridine (the therapeutically inactive moiety of sulphasalazine) and dexamethasone, whose effects on interleukin ,13 synthesis by monocytes have previously been characterised.9 We also evaluated the relation of interleukin 13 and thromboxane B2 and studied the effect of 5-aminosalicylic acid on basal synthesis of eicosanoids. Methods PATIENTSTwenty four patients with active ulcerative colitis (14 women, six men; median age 48 5 years (range 20-79)), two with active Crohn's disease (both women, aged 20 and 32 years), and 12 patients with normal colons (five women, seven men; median age 52 5 (range 27-81)) were studied. Biopsy specimens were obtained while these patients were undergoing colonoscopy for clinical reasons. The control group with normal colonic mucosa (confirmed on routine histology) were patients who were undergoing investigations for gastrointestinal symptoms and in whom no abnormality of the gastrointestinal tract was found.Eight patients with inflammatory bowel disease were being treated with sulphasalazine, seven with mesalazine, six with oral prednisolone, four with steroid enemas, and four with azathioprme.
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