Photo Credit: Jose Luis Calva Martin & Jose Enrique Garcia-Maurino MuzQuiz

Ileal paneth cell phenotype (PCP) was biologically and clinically relevant in ulcerative colitis (UC) and can be used as a biomarker in inflammatory bowel disease, according to findings published in the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis. Changqing Ma, MD, PhD, and colleagues used uninflamed ileal resection margins from subjects with UC with colectomy and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). PCP was defined using defensin 5 immunofluorescence, and genotyping was performed using Immunochip. The study team incorporated UC transcriptomic and genotype associations of PCP with data from patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) to identify common IBD-related pathways and genes that regulate PCP. The prevalence of abnormal ileal PCP was comparable to that seen in CD. A combined analysis of patients with UC and CD showed that abnormal PCP was associated with transcriptomic pathways of secretory granule maturation and polymorphisms in innate immunity genes. Abnormal ileal PCP at the time of colectomy was also associated with pouch complications.