title: Plasma-induced signatures reveal an extracellular milieu possessing an immunoregulatory bias in treatment-naive paediatric inflammatory bowel disease.
abstract: The inflammatory state associated with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) remains incompletely defined. To understand more clearly the extracellular milieu associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we employed a bioassay whereby plasma of treatment naive paediatric IBD patients (n = 22 CD, n = 15 UC) and unrelated healthy controls (uHC, n = 10) were used to induce transcriptional responses in a healthy leucocyte population. After culture, gene expression was measured comprehensively with microarrays and analysed. Relative to uHC, plasma of CD and UC patients induced distinct responses consisting, respectively, of 985 and 895 regulated transcripts [|log2 ratio| ≥ 0·5 (1·4-fold); false discovery rates (FDR) ≤ 0·01]. The CD:uHC and UC:uHC signatures shared a non-random, commonly regulated, intersection of 656 transcripts (χ(2)  = P < 0·001) and were highly correlative [Pearson's correlation coefficient = 0·96, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96, 0.97]. Despite sharing common genetic susceptibility loci, the IBD signature correlated negatively with that driven by plasma of type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients (Pearson's correlation coefficient = -0·51). Ontological analyses revealed the presence of an immunoregulatory plasma milieu in IBD, as transcripts for cytokines/chemokines, receptors and signalling molecules consistent with immune activation were under-expressed relative to uHC and T1D plasma. Multiplex enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and receptor blockade studies confirmed transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and interleukin (IL)-10 as contributors to the IBD signature. Analysis of CD patient signatures detected a subset of transcripts associated with responsiveness to 6-mercaptopurine treatment. Through plasma-induced signature analysis, we have defined a unique, partially TGF-β/IL-10-dependent immunoregulatory signature associated with IBD that may prove useful in predicting therapeutic responsiveness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gurram
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Salzman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.|The Max McGee Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes, Children's Research Institute of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kaldunski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.|The Max McGee Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes, Children's Research Institute of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: B U K
authors.initials: BU
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sood
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.|The Max McGee Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes, Children's Research Institute of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hessner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000494:pharmacology; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D061251:Primary Cell Culture; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D059467:Transcriptome; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins; C508609:IL10 protein, human; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D016753:Interleukin-10
keywords: Crohn's disease; gene expression profiling; inflammatory bowel disease; microarray; ulcerative colitis