[Ulcerative rectocolitis. Somatic aspects (author's transl)]

Regional enteritis (Crohn's disease) and ulcerative rectocolitis, both "non specific inflammatory diseases of the bowel", might be diseases with a common etiology but with clinical features corresponding to a different tissular response to a noxious factor. Both diseases are however characterized by distinct clinical, radiological, histological peculiarities; evolution also is different, as appears from the rarity of malignant degeneration in Crohn's disease and its frequence in ulcerative colitis; a psychological support seems to be classical in ulcerative colitis but is on the contrary unusual in regional ileitis. Besides the interference of psychological factors in the outbreak of an ulcerative colitis, besides the infectious and genetic theories, the immunological theory appears as one of the most interesting and promising. In a significant percentage of cases of ulcerative colitis, anticolon antibodies are evidenced, which exhibit a crossed reaction with bacterial antigens, especially with those of Escherichia coli 014. Besides this humoral immunity a cellular immunity exists also: lymphocytes of patients with ulcerative colitis behave as a toxic agent towards colic tissue cultures; this cytotoxicity parallels the course of the disease and provides an explanation for the sometimes dramatic therapeutic effects observed after administration of immunosuppressive drugs and antilymphocytic serum. Moreover, colic antigen can block this cytotoxicity; the immunologically active portion of this antigen may be isolated and its administration in patients with ulcerative colitis may perhaps induce a specific immunosuppression and influence the evolution of the disease.