Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 25, 2026

Author Spotlight: Studying the Epithelial Effects of Intestinal Inflammation In Vitro on Established Murine Colonoids
Published on: June 2, 2023
Inflammation significantly alters mucosal transcriptomic signatures in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Alexander Schnell1, Xinyi Wei1,2, Jan Bossenz3
1Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Objectives And Study:
Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) share common features of inflammation to a greater extent in children than in adults. However, histopathological scoring systems of mucosal inflammation are usually available only for either one of these entities. The IBD-DCA score is the first of its kind to incorporate both into one scoring system but still lacks validation in pediatric IBD.
Methods:
An existing data of a multiplexed gene expression analysis of mucosal biopsies of 25 patients diagnosed with either CD (n = 16) or UC (n = 9) were evaluated according to the IBD-DCA score for distribution (D0-2), chronicity (C0-2) and activity (A0-2) of inflammation by an experienced pathologist. The scoring results were used to stratify the degree of mucosal inflammation of these patients into either low (0-3) or high (4-6) DCA scores. Subsequently, analysis for differentially expressed genes (DEG) between the low and high inflammation group was performed.
Results:
Scoring revealed 7 low and 9 high DCA samples for CD, whereas for UC only high DCA were scored. DEG analysis revealed 130 upregulated genes in the high DCA group compared to the low DCA group. 11 genes were identified as hub genes playing a pivotal role in immune regulation, among those several cyto- or chemokines (IL1B, CCL20, CXCL1/2), costimulatory receptors (IL2RA, CD80, TLR2) and modulatory proteins like PD-L1 and IDO1.
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that inflammatory activity rather as assessed by the IBD-DCA score rather than the underlying disease entity significantly alters the transcriptomic signature in mucosal specimens of pediatric IBD patients.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Inflammatory Bowel Disease III: Crohn's Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Disease II: Ulcerative Colitis
Inflammatory Bowel Disease IV: Clinical Manifestations
Inflammatory Bowel Disease I: Ulcerative Colitis
Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, encompasses a group of disorders characterized by chronic inflammation or ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract.
Risk Factors
The exact cause of IBD remains unclear, although it is believed to be due to a mix of genetic, environmental, microbial, and immune factors. Genetic factors are significant in determining susceptibility to IBD, with family history being a critical risk factor. Individuals with a first-degree relative who has IBD are at...
Inflammatory Bowel Disease II: Crohn's Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease, commonly known as IBD, refers to a collection of disorders that lead to persistent inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The two types of IBD are ulcerative colitis, which impacts the colon, and Crohn's disease, which can involve any part of the gastrointestinal segment.
Crohn's disease
Crohn's disease is a chronic, systemic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that predominantly affects the gastrointestinal tract. It is marked by...
Inflammatory Bowel Disease I: Introduction

