Masuda H, Iwai S, Tanaka T, Hayakawa S
Third Department of Surgery, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
J Clin Lab Immunol. 1995;46(3):111-23.
The etiology of ulcerative colitis (UC) remains uncertain. It has been said that in patients with an active phase of UC the levels of the proinflammatory cytokines increased. Paying particular attention to patients with inactive UC, we investigated several cytokines' m-RNA transcripts.
In 27 patients with UC, the mucosal cytokine expression of m-RNA including IL-8, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and IL-6 were examined using the reverse transcription-coupled polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and oligonucleotide hybridization.
The expression of IL-8, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma m-RNA increased even in inactive UC, suggesting that these three cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of repeated inflammation of UC.
溃疡性结肠炎（UC）的病因仍不明确。据说在UC活动期患者中促炎细胞因子水平会升高。我们特别关注非活动期UC患者，研究了几种细胞因子的mRNA转录本。
对27例UC患者，采用逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和寡核苷酸杂交技术检测包括白细胞介素-8（IL-8）、肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）、干扰素-γ（IFN-γ）和白细胞介素-6（IL-6）在内的mRNA的黏膜细胞因子表达。
1）UC患者中IL-8、IFN-γ和TNF-α的mRNA表达率（分别为92.6%、70.4%和77.8%）显著高于正常对照组（分别为17.6%、0.0%和5.9%）（p<0.01）。关于IL-8和IFN-γ，UC患者中的表达也显著高于其他类型结肠炎患者（p<0.05）。2）在IL-8、TNF-α和IFN-γ的mRNA表达率方面，活动期和非活动期UC患者之间未观察到显著差异。3）只有IL-6 mRNA的表达率与根据马茨标准的宏观评分相关。此外，在10例其他类型结肠炎患者中有9例（90.0%）观察到结肠组织中IL-6 mRNA的表达。
即使在非活动期UC中，IL-8、TNF-α和IFN-γ mRNA的表达也会增加，表明这三种细胞因子在UC反复炎症的发病机制中起重要作用。
