Background and aim-The treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) with 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) does not have the same therapeutic eVect in all patients. We tested the hypothesis that the eVectiveness of the drug is related to its mucosal concentration. Patients-Twenty one UC patients receiving oral 5-ASA (2.4-3.2 g/day) were enrolled in the study. Four were also receiving topical treatment (2 g/day). In contrast, mucosal sIL2-R concentrations were significantly lower in patients with slight endoscopic and histological lesions than in those with more severe disease. A significative inverse correlation (r=−0.85) was found between 5-ASA and sIL-2R mucosal concentrations (p=0.00008). Conclusions-In patients with UC, in the same area of the intestinal tract, we found that the higher the 5-ASA mucosal concentrations, the lower the IL-2R levels and endoscopic and histological scores. We hypothesise that maintenance of high mucosal 5-ASA concentrations in all colonic segments could contribute to improve clinical outcome in UC patients. (Gut 2000;47:410-414)
Methods-Six
Topical treatment of mesalazine significantly increases mucosal concentrations of mesalazine up to the splenic flexure, supporting the rationale to treat left-sided ulcerative colitis with topical formulations of mesalazine.
In order to identify a metal bioaccumulation\ud
marker usable in monitoring programs, we analyzed the\ud
metal content in Mytilus galloprovincialis gill and gonadal\ud
tissues and its relationship with p-gst expression levels\ud
after a laboratory exposure for 24 h to individual chlorides\ud
of Ni, Cu, 5, 15, 35 lM and Cd 1,5; 5, 10 lM in artificial\ud
sea water. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry\ud
showed that metal content increased in both tissues in an\ud
exposure dose-dependent fashion except for Ni in gonadal\ud
tissues, where a low value at the highest exposure was\ud
observed. Metal bioaccumulation was higher in gill than\ud
gonadal tissues as was p-gst expression level, measured by\ud
RT-qPCR, except for the highest Cu exposure. In the\ud
gonadal tissue, Ni induced the highest p-gst increase\ud
resulting in 2.5- and 4-fold at 5 and 35 lM, respectively,\ud
while only about twofold for some Cu and Cd dose\ud
exposure. In gill tissue, instead Cd produced p-gst dosedependent\ud
increase being 2.3- and 9.6-fold at 5 and 10 lM,\ud
respectively. Ni and Cu meanwhile produced 12- and\ud
5-fold expression levels only at the highest concentration\ud
used. Mytilus galloprovincialis shows also a selectivity to\ud
accumulate the investigated metals, since metal concentration\ud
reduction in ASW, after exposure, was 96–97 %;\ud
85.1–90 % and 4.5–10 % for Cd, Cu and Ni, respectively.\ud
Finally, p-gst expression levels correlated particularly with\ud
the amount of bioaccumulated Cd in gill tissue, indicating\ud
p-gst as a potential marker, even if not univocally, of\ud
significative cadmium bioaccumulation usable in environmental\ud
monitoring programs
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