Gallbladder bile composition in patients with Crohn’s disease

Table 1 Characteristics of patients with Crohn’s disease and controls with gallstone disease

Patient group	n	Sex (M/F)	Mean age (range) (yr)	Previous surgery	Present surgery	Medical treatment
Crohn’s disease Ileitis or ileocolitis	17	8/9	38(23-70)	Ileal or ileocolonic Ileal, resection (n = 12)	Colonic or ileocolonic resection (n = 15)	Steroids (n = 11) Azathioprine (n = 4)
					Cholecystectomy (n = 2)	Nitromidazole (n = 6) 5-ASA (n = 2)
Colitis	7	5/2	42(28-57)	Partial colonic	Partial colonic resection or colectomy (n = 7)	Steroids (n = 5) Azathioprine (n = 1)
						Nitromidazole (n = 3)
Gallstone disease	14	1/13	47 (27-57)		Cholecystectomy (n = 14)

Table 2 Biliary lipid composition and cholesterol saturation (mean ± SE)

	Crohn’s disease ileitisor ileocolitis (n = 17)	Crohn’s diseasecolitis (n = 7)	Crohn’s diseaseall patients (n = 24)	Gallstone disease(n = 14)
Cholesterol (molar%)	7.4± 0.7	6.4 ± 0.9	7.1 ± 0.6	9.8 ± 1.2
Phospholipids (molar%)	22.3 ± 1.2	25.0 ± 1.8	23.1 ± 1.0	25.1 ± 1.8
Bile acids (molar%)	70.3 ± 1.6	68.6 ± 2.4	69.8 ± 1.3	65.1 ± 3.0
Cholesterol saturation (%)	103 ± 9	83 ± 9a	97 ± 7	138 ± 18

^aP < 0.05 vs patients with gallstone disease

Table 3 Biliary bile acid composition (mean ± SE)

	Crohn’s disease ileitis or ileocolitis (n = 17)	Crohn’s disease colitis (n = 7)	Crohn’s disease all patients (n = 24)	Gallstone disease(n = 14)
Cholic acid (%)	44.5 ± 3.3	43.2 ± 2.2	44.1 ± 2.4a	35.4 ± 2.7
Chenodeoxycholic acid (%)	43.0 ± 2.9b	45.3 ± 3.8b	43.7 ± 2.3b	31.2 ± 2.4
Deoxycholic acid (%)	8.4 ± 2.3c	10.7 ± 3.2c	9.1 ± 1.8c	30.7 ± 4.3
Lithocholic acid (%)	0.10 ± 0.09c	0.01 ± 0.01c	0.07 ± 0.07c	1.5 ± 0.2
Ursodeoxycholic acid (%)	3.6 ± 1.8	0.7 ± 0.5	2.7 ± 1.3	1.2 ± 0.3

P < 0.05, ²P < 0.01, ³P < 0.001 vs patients with gallstone disease.

Table 4 Bilirubin concentrations in bile (mean ± SE)

	Crohn’s disease ileitis or ileocolitis	Crohn’s disease colitis (n = 6)	Crohn’s Diseaseall patients (n = 21)	Gallstone disease (n = 14)
Bilirubin (mmol/L)	4.6 ± 0.7a	5.9 ± 1.6	5.0 ± 0.7	2.6 ± 0.2

* Significantly different from corresponding value of patients with gallstone disease.

^aP < 0.05 vs patients with gallstone disease.

Table 5 Data on healthy subjects treated with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)

Patients	Sex	Age(yr)	BMI	Cholesterol saturation (%)		Cholesterol(molar %)		Bile acids(molar %)		UDCA i(%)		Bile acids(mmol/mL)		Bilirubin(mmol/L)		Bilirubin/bileacids (mmol/mol)
1	F	39	22.2	103	31	6.6	1.7	74.5	82.8	0.0	49.9	57.1	100.9	490	1058	8.6	10.5
2	F	40	24.4	74	38	4.8	2.4	75.8	79.2	0.0	65.3	92.8	95.6	1466	571	15.8	6.0
3	F	30	26.8	116	46	9.1	3.4	65.8	72.7	0.0	-	75.4	65.8	1031	798	13.7	12.1
4	F	58	26.3	32	42	2.4	2.8	71.7	76.1	0.0	55.8	117.8	73.6	1265	667	10.7	9.1
5	M	33	29.4	125	51	7.4	3.8	76.2	71.4	5.2	55.1	52.1	117.4	1045	1111	20.0	9.5
6	M	30	24.0	104	60	6.1	3.7	77.6	78.2	0.0	66.5	97.9	32.1	1301	418	13.3	13.0
7	M	34	24.9	128	38	8.9	2.5	70.5	76.7	0.0	54.3	52.3	26.3	993	375	19.0	14.3
8	M	73	26.2	118	55	8.9	4.3	67.5	68.6	0.0	35.7	31.0	61.9	1168	1497	37.7	24.2
9	M	49	23.2	77	79	5.6	4.9	71.3	77.7	0.0	41.3	33.5	12.8	662	365	19.8	28.5
10	M	55	24.3	135	77	9.8	4.9	68.6	76.7	0.0	69.7	16.4	8.5	568	197	34.5	23.3
Mean		44	25.2	101	52b	7.0	3.4b	72.0	76.0a	0.5	54.8b	62.6	59.5	999	706	19.3	15.1
SE		4.5	0.7	10	5	0.7	0.3	1.26	1.3	0.5	3.8	10.3	12.1	104	130	3.1	2.4

A = before UDCA feeding; B = after UDCA feeding;

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01 vs before UDCA feeding.