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Epstein-Barr virus infection of the colon with inflammatory bowel disease
H Yanai1, N Shimizu, S Nagasaki
1First Department of Internal Medicine, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Ube, Japan.
Objective:
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-infected cells can evoke severe host immune responses, as shown in infectious mononucleosis and EBV-associated gastric carcinoma. To investigate the possible pathological role of EBV in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we tested for the presence of EBV in the colon in IBD patients.
Methods:
Surgically resected colonic specimens of 11 patients with Crohn's disease, five patients with ulcerative colitis, nine noninflammatory controls (disease-free area of the colorectal carcinoma), and 10 appendicitis cases were tested using highly sensitive in situ hybridization for EBV-encoded small RNA1 (EBER-1).
Results:
EBER-1 was detected in 63.6% of Crohn's disease cases and 60% of ulcerative colitis cases, but not at all in noninflammatory controls and appendicitis cases. EBER-1-positive cells were very rare in the noninflammatory areas of colonic specimens from IBD patients. EBER-1-positive cells were nonepithelial cells (mainly B lymphocytes and a few histiocyte-shaped cells) located in erosive or ulcerative areas of the colonic specimens.
Conclusion:
The limited presence of EBV-infected cells in the diseased areas of IBD colonic specimens indicated that EBV infection may be related to such diseases.