IL-17 and ulcerative colitis/PSC Partners to receive an educational grant

[Guest guest]

Dear All;

I've been boring you all lately with discussion of pro-inflammatory

Th17 cells, which produce a potent set of pro-inflammatory cytokines

like interleukin-17 (IL-17). These cells are now being looked at

closely in many autoimmune diseases, and I have been strongly hinting

that these cells should be examined carefully in ulcerative colitis

and PSC!

Here's an interesting recent paper which points to the importance of

interleukin-17 in ulcerative colits, and in particular pancolits [the

type often found in PSC].

J. Clin. Immunol. 2007 Sep 9; [Epub ahead of print]

The Influence of Polymorphisms of Interleukin-17A and Interleukin-17F

Genes on the Susceptibility to Ulcerative Colitis.

Arisawa T, Tahara T, Shibata T, Nagasaka M, Nakamura M, Kamiya Y,

Fujita H, Nakamura M, Yoshioka D, Arima Y, Okubo M, Hirata I, Nakano

H.

Department of Gastroenterology, Fujita Health University School of

Medicine, 1-98, Dengakugakubo, Kutsukake-cho, Toyoake, 470-1192,

Japan, tarisawa@....

We investigated the association between ulcerative colitis (UC) and

polymorphisms of IL-17A (rs2275913, G-197A) and IL-17F (rs763780,

7488T/C) genes. We employed the multiplex PCR-SSCP method to detect

gene polymorphisms. Both the numbers of -197A (IL-17A) and 7488T (IL-

17F) alleles were significantly correlated to the development of UC.

The frequencies of -197A/A and 7488T/T genotypes in the UC group were

significantly higher than those in the non-UC group. An adjusted

analysis revealed that -197A and 7488T alleles were independent risk

factors for the developing UC. In addition, both polymorphisms were

significantly associated with the pancolitis phenotype. Furthermore, -

197A allele was significantly correlated to the chronic relapsing

phenotype and -197A/A homozygote was more frequent in steroid-

dependent cases, whereas 7488T allele was correlated with the chronic

continuous phenotype. Our results provided the first evidence that -

197A (IL-17A) and 7488T (IL-17F) alleles may influence the

susceptibility to and pathophysiological features of UC independently.

PMID: 17828618.

__________________

On a totally different subject, I'd like to report to the group that

Ricky Safer and I recently submitted a grant proposal on behalf of

PSC Partners Seeking a Cure, to Cordis Corporation (a division of

& ) for an educational grant .... a grant to fund the

PSC Partners Seeking a Cure and PSC Literature web sites, and

enhancements to them, over the next 3 years. Ricky and I are very

pleased to announce that Cordis Corporation plans to give us $9,000

for this effort. Thank you so much Cordis Corporation!

Dave

(father of (22); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03)