Role of leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein in Taiwanese patients with inflammatory bowel disease as a predictive biomarker for endoscopic activity

doi:10.3748/wjg.v32.i3.114677

Advanced Search

BPG is committed to discovery and dissemination of knowledge

Home / Archive / Volume 32, Issue 3

This Article

Academic Content and Language Evaluation of This Article

CrossCheck and Google Search of This Article

Academic Rules and Norms of This Article

Supplementary Materials of This Article

Citation of this article

Corresponding Author of This Article

Research Domain of This Article

Article-Type of This Article

Open-Access Policy of This Article

Times Cited Counts in Google of This Article

Number of Hits and Downloads for This Article

Total Article Views (0)

All Articles published online

The chart showing PDF series, HTML series, Figures (1-4) series, Tables (1-4) series.

Item

Count

PDF

HTML

Figures (1-4)

Tables (1-4)

Sum=22

Publishing Process of This Article

The chart showing Browse series, Download series.

Item

Count

Browse

Download

Sum=22

Jan 21, 2026 (publication date) through Jan 16, 2026

Times Cited of This Article

Times Cited (0)

Journal Information of This Article

Publication Name

World Journal of Gastroenterology

ISSN

1007-9327

Publisher of This Article

Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

Prospective Study

World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2026; 32(3): 114677
Published online Jan 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i3.114677

Role of leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein in Taiwanese patients with inflammatory bowel disease as a predictive biomarker for endoscopic activity

Yun-Chu Chen, Meng-Tzu Weng, Feng-Pai Tsai, Zhi-Che Chen, Hsin-Yun Wu, Chien-Chih Tung, Chun-Ying Wang, Shu-Chen Wei

Yun-Chu Chen, Meng-Tzu Weng, Feng-Pai Tsai, Zhi-Che Chen, Hsin-Yun Wu, Shu-Chen Wei, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Meng-Tzu Weng, Chun-Ying Wang, Department of Medical Research, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan

Feng-Pai Tsai, Department of Medicine, National Taiwan University Cancer Center, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Zhi-Che Chen, Hsin-Yun Wu, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Jin-Shan Branch, New Taipei City 208, Taiwan

Chien-Chih Tung, Department of Integrated Diagnostics and Therapeutics, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Author contributions: Chen YC, Tsai FP, and Wei SC contributed to the conceptualization; Chen YC, Chen ZC, and Wu HY contributed to data curation; Chen YC and Wang CY contributed to formal analysis; Tsai FP, Tung CC, and Wei SC contributed to investigation; Weng MT, Tung CC, and Wei SC contributed to resources; Chen YC, Weng MT, Wu HY, and Wei SC contributed to supervision; Chen YC wrote the original draft; Weng MT, Chen ZC, Wu HY, and Wei SC contributed to writing - review & editing.

Supported by the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan, No. MOST 111-2314-B-002-188-MY3; and the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation.

Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of National Taiwan University Hospital (approval No. 202112116RINC).

Clinical trial registration statement: This study is not a clinical trial.

Informed consent statement: This prospective study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles for medical research involving human patients outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, which was updated in 2013. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrollment.

Conflict-of-interest statement: Wei SC received research grants from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan (No. MOST 111-2314-B-002-188-MY3), National Taiwan University Hospital (No. MS 507) and the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation to support this study.

CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.

Data sharing statement: The technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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: Shu-Chen Wei, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7 Chungshan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan. shuchenwei@ntu.edu.tw

Received: September 26, 2025
Revised: October 24, 2025
Accepted: December 2, 2025
Published online: January 21, 2026
Processing time: 113 Days and 8.6 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: Endoscopy and fecal calprotectin (FC) are standard tools for assessing disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but both have limitations. We evaluated serum leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG) as a noninvasive biomarker in a Taiwanese IBD cohort. LRG correlated with FC, C-reactive protein (CRP), hemoglobin, and albumin. In ulcerative colitis, LRG predicted endoscopic activity, particularly in patients with normal CRP levels. Combining CRP, hemoglobin, and LRG significantly improved the endoscopic activity prediction to nearly that of FC. Our findings support the clinical utility of LRG as a complementary biomarker for disease monitoring in IBD, particularly in ulcerative colitis with low CRP.