Kobayashi K, Brown W R, Brennan P J, Blaser M J
Department of Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Denver, Colorado.
Gastroenterology. 1988 Jun;94(6):1404-11. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(88)90679-8.
Infection with a species of Mycobacterium has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease. Therefore, we attempted to determine whether a specific serum antibody response to mycobacteria occurs in patients with the disease. We tested sera of patients with active Crohn's disease and several control groups in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for reactivity with two mycobacterial antigens: (a) lipoarabinomannan, a highly immunogenic somatic lipopolysaccharide present in the cell walls of all species of the Mycobacterium genus, and (b) a protoplasmic antigenic preparation from M. sp strain linda, the mycobacterium that has been specifically implicated in Crohn's disease. We found no significant elevation in immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin G, or immunoglobulin M antibody levels to these two antigen preparations in the Crohn's disease patients. Moreover, no subset of patients (sex, age, Crohn's disease activity index, location of disease, duration of disease, operations, or response to treatment) had elevated antibody levels. As virtually all known chronic infectious diseases have an associated serologic response to the etiologic agent, our findings greatly diminish the likelihood that Crohn's disease is caused by an infection with a mycobacterium.
感染某种分枝杆菌与克罗恩病的发病机制有关。因此，我们试图确定该病患者是否会出现针对分枝杆菌的特异性血清抗体反应。我们采用酶联免疫吸附测定法，检测了活动期克罗恩病患者以及几个对照组的血清与两种分枝杆菌抗原的反应性：（a）脂阿拉伯甘露聚糖，一种存在于分枝杆菌属所有菌种细胞壁中的高度免疫原性的体细胞脂多糖；（b）来自琳达分枝杆菌菌株的原生质抗原制剂，该分枝杆菌被认为与克罗恩病有特定关联。我们发现，克罗恩病患者针对这两种抗原制剂的免疫球蛋白A、免疫球蛋白G或免疫球蛋白M抗体水平没有显著升高。此外，没有任何亚组患者（性别、年龄、克罗恩病活动指数、疾病部位、病程、手术情况或对治疗的反应）的抗体水平升高。由于几乎所有已知的慢性传染病都对病原体有相关的血清学反应，我们的研究结果大大降低了克罗恩病由分枝杆菌感染引起的可能性。
