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Concentrations of platelet activating factor in rectal mucosa in patients with ulcerative colitis
1Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden.
Objective:
To find out if concentrations of platelet activating factor (PAF), which has been proposed as a mediator in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, are increased in the rectal mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis.
Design:
Open study.
Setting:
University hospital, Sweden.
Subjects:
45 Patients with ulcerative colitis (19 with active disease and 26 in remission), and 6 control patients and 11 healthy volunteers who acted as controls.
Interventions:
Rectal biopsy.
Main Outcome Measure:
PAF content of rectal biopsy specimens.
Results:
There were no differences between the PAF content of rectal mucosa in patients with active disease (median 47 pmol/g wet weight), patients in remission (47 pmol/g), and controls (51 pmol/g). There was no correlation between PAF content and inflammation seen endoscopically or histologically. 13 Patients who had active disease were investigated on a second occasion 9 weeks later (range 7-17), when in remission having received steroids but steroid-free at that time. There was a slight but not significant trend towards lower concentrations of PAF (median 33 pmol/g) compared with their previous results, possibly as a result of treatment. PAF concentrations were significantly lower than those of a group of patients in clinically stable remission of longer duration (p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
We did not find high concentrations of PAF in the rectal mucosa of patients with active ulcerative colitis compared with patients in remission or controls. We therefore have no evidence that PAF has an important role as a mediator in the inflammation of ulcerative colitis.