Abstract
The diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) may be challenging and their clinical course, characterized by relapses and spontaneous or drug-induced remissions, is difficult to predict. Novel prognostic biomarkers are needed. Keratin 7 (K7) is a cytoskeletal intermediate filament protein which is not normally expressed in the colonic epithelium. It was recently shown that K7 expression in the colonic epithelium is associated with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, the two main subtypes of IBD. Here we investigated IBD associated K7 neo-expression in different regions of colon and terminal ileum. The correlation of the K7 expression with the inflammatory activity of the epithelium was analyzed in each region. The prognostic value of K7 was estimated by comparing the clinical disease activity after 3 years with the K7 expression at the time of enrollment. Our data shows that the level of K7 expression in inflamed epithelium varies depending on the anatomical region and it is the most pronounced in ascending and descending colon, but it did not predict the severity of IBD for the following 3 years. These results warrant future studies focusing on the biological role of K7 in colon and its utilization as potential IBD biomarker.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 11979 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Jul 2023 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
This research was supported by Finland State Research Funding (EVO-rahoitus), Mary and Georg C. Ehrnrooth Foundation, the Academy of Finland (Project 332582 and InFLAMES Flagship Programme funding, Decision No.: 337531, 357911), and Åbo Akademi University Center of Excellence of Cellular Mechanostasis. We thank Maria Ilomäki, Emelie Lassas and Joel Nyström from Åbo Akademi University (Turku, Finland) for their support in the cell sample preparation, staining and imaging.