Concordance of ulcerative colitis in monozygotic twin sisters

The etiology of inflammatory bowel disease is multifactorial and appears to combine both genetic and environmental factors. We experienced here a rare occurrence of woman monozygotic twins with ulcerative colitis (UC). A 45-year-old woman (the elder monozygotic twin) was admitted to our hospital because of bloody diarrhea occurring over 10 times per day, abdominal pain and fever. She was diagnosed as UC at the age of 22, and repeated the relapse and remission. She was diagnosed as relapse of UC and total colitis type. Her younger monozygotic twin sister also suffered from UC at the age of 22. Human leukocyte antigen was examined serologically with DNA type in both patients. DRB1*1502, which was previously shown to be dominant in Japanese patients with UC, was not observed in this case. Although the concordance in monozygotic twin in UC is reported to be 6.3-18.8%, the concordant case like this is relatively rare. We report this rare case of UC and the previously reported cases are also discussed.