title: Absence of Mycobacterium avium ss paratuberculosis-specific IS900 sequence in intestinal biopsy tissues of Indian patients with Crohn's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The role of Mycobacterium avium ss paratuberculosis (MAP) in the etiopathology of Crohn's disease (CD) remains controversial, because of conflicting reports demonstrating the presence of MAP-specific insertion sequence from intestinal biopsy tissues of patients clinically diagnosed for the disease. The present study was carried out to investigate the presence of MAP DNA in the intestinal tissues of CD patients to ascertain the relevance of MAP in Indian patients with CD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients diagnosed as CD at our institute were recruited. Healthy individuals without inflammatory bowel disease served as controls. Mucosal biopsy specimens were collected from ileum and colon in duplicates and subjected to histopathological examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Total DNA (81 CD patients, 85 healthy individuals) and total RNA (12 CD patients, 12 healthy individuals) isolated from tissue specimens was used for amplification of MAP-specific IS900 by nested PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MAP-specific IS900 DNA and RNA could not be detected by nested PCR in the intestinal tissues of any patient with CD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results do not support the etiological role of MAP in the pathogenesis of CD in Indian patients.
authors.affiliation: Asian Health Care Foundation, Somajiguda, Hyderabad, 500 082, India. aigres.mit@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mitnala
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sasikala
authors.forename: D Nageshwar
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Nitesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pratap
authors.forename: Sanjeev Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: P Reddy
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Balkumar
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sekaran
authors.forename: Rupa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.forename: D Bhaskara
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016927:Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010283:Paratuberculosis / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial