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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 14, 2025; 31(46): 113172
Published online Dec 14, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i46.113172
Published online Dec 14, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i46.113172
Serum C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 9, interleukin 8, and interleukin 22 as key biomarkers in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Adi Eindor-Abarbanel, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Shamir Medical Center Affiliated to Grey's Medical School Tel Aviv University, Zrifin 70300, Israel
Kevin Tsai, Bruce Vallance, The Gut4Health Microbiome Core, Research Institute, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver V6H 3V4, British Columbia, Canada
Ash Sandhu, Division of Biostatistics, Research Institute, British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver V6H 3V4, British Columbia, Canada
Kevan Jacobson, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6H 3V4, British Columbia, Canada
Author contributions: Eindor-Abarbanel A collected the data, conceived the study, wrote the manuscript, and performed part of the analysis; Tsai K was responsible for the study design and performed the analysis; Sandhu A was responsible for the statistical analysis and wrote parts of the manuscript; Vallance B was responsible for supervising the study and reviewed the manuscript; Jacobson K was responsible for the study design, supervision, and patient recruitment.
Supported by the Lutsky Family Foundation and AdMare Bioinnovations (previously known as the Genome BC CDRD Development Fund).
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the British Columbia Children's Hospital Ethics Committee (Approval No. H10-01760).
Informed consent statement: All parents or legal guardians of participants provided written informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Jacobson K is advisor/speaker of AbbVie Canada; advisor/consultant of AbbVie Canada, McKesson Canada, Janssen Canada, Viatris Canada, Celltrion Canada, CSL Behring Inc Canada; and stock options of Engene Inc Canada. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data will be shared upon request from the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kevan Jacobson, MD, Professor, Senior Scientist, Department of Pe
Received: August 18, 2025
Revised: September 9, 2025
Accepted: October 27, 2025
Published online: December 14, 2025
Processing time: 115 Days and 1.5 Hours
Revised: September 9, 2025
Accepted: October 27, 2025
Published online: December 14, 2025
Processing time: 115 Days and 1.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The diagnosis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) usually requires invasive endoscopy under anesthesia, which carries risks in children. In this study, we evaluated serum cytokines as potential non-invasive biomarkers to distinguish pediatric IBD from non-IBD controls. Among over 250 pediatric patients, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 9 (CXCL9), interleukin 8 (IL-8), and IL-22 emerged as key markers with strong discriminatory capacity. CXCL9 and IL-18 differentiated Crohn’s disease from ulcerative colitis, whereas CXCL1 levels were associated with the need for biologic the