Plasma levels of endothelin-1 in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the behavior of circulating endothelin-1, a vasoconstrictor and mitogenic peptide, in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.


METHODS
We investigated plasma endothelin-1 levels in 29 patients with Crohn's disease, 13 with ulcerative colitis and 26 healthy subjects as controls.


METHODS
Erythrocyte sedimentation and C-reactive protein were also measured in all patients. Plasma endothelin-1 was measured by specific radioimmunoassay and expressed as pg/ml.


RESULTS
Both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients showed a significant increase in plasma endothelin-1 concentration (22.3 +/- 8.2 pg/ml and 11.2 +/- 2.7 pg/ml, respectively) when compared to healthy subjects (6.2 +/- 1.5 pg/ml). Moreover, plasma endothelin-1 levels were significantly higher in Crohn's disease patients than those in ulcerative colitis patients (22.3 +/- 8.2 pg/ml vs 11.2 +/- 2.7 pg/ml; p < 0.001, respectively). A weak correlation (r = 0.645; p < 0.013) between erythrocyte sedimentation and endothelin-1 levels was observed in Crohn's disease patients. Age, sex, clinical activity of the disease, duration of history, anatomical localization of disease and therapy had no influence on plasma endothelin-1 levels.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that plasma endothelin-1 levels increase in chronic inflammatory bowel disease and mainly in Crohn's disease. This observation leads us on to believe that endothelin-1 has a important role in inflammatory bowel disease.
2nd Institute of Internal Medicine, Rome, Italy.
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Letizia
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Boirivant
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De Toma
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Cerci
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Subioli
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Ferrari
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Pallone
D000328:Adult; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000097:blood*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000097:blood*; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D019332:Endothelin-1; D002097:C-Reactive Protein