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Increased expression of metallothionein in inflammatory bowel disease
M Brüwer1, K W Schmid, K A Metz
1Department of General Surgery, Westfalian WiIhelms-University, Münster, Germany. bruwer@uni-muenster.de
Objective:
Metallothioneins (MT) are cytoprotective against the damaging effects of oxygen-derived free radicals. Therefore MT may be involved in defence mechanisms to counter Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).
Materials:
107 routinely processed tissue samples from 22 patients with CD and 48 patients with UC were tested with the monoclonal anti-MT antibody E9.
Methods:
Immunohistochemistry was used to assess MT staining in a semiquantitative manner. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.
Results:
MT overexpression was found in the fibroblasts of all ulcerative and/or fissural lesions in UC and CD. MT overexpression in intestinal epithelial cells of 40% of UC and CD lesions correlated significantly with the grade of inflammation.
Conclusions:
MT-immunoreactivity in fibroblasts supports a protective role for MT in inflammatory bowel disease. It remains unclear whether MT overexpression in epithelial cells is also important in this protection.