Serum immune-activation potency and response to anti-TNF-α therapy in Crohn's disease

Table 1 Patient characteristics

Age (yr): median (range)	25 (19-44)
Disease duration, years median (range)	5.1 (0.4-27)
	No. of patients	%
Disease location
Ileum	2	13
Colon	4	27
Ileocolon	9	60
Disease type
Inflammatory	7	47
Stricturing	5	33
Inflammatory + perianal	3	20
Prior anti-TNF-therapy	4	27
Prior bowel operation	4	27
Smokers	7	47
Baseline concomitant medication
Azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine	10	67
Methotrexate	2	13
Corticosteroids	10	67
Mesalamine or sulphasalazine	13	87
Week 12 concomitant medication
Azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine	13	87
Methotrexate	2	13
Corticosteroids	1	6.7
Mesalamine or sulphasalazine	11	73
CDAI at baseline, median (range)	158 (49-605)
CDAI at week 12, median (range)	66 (24-202)

CDAI: Crohn’s disease activity index; TNF: Tumor necrosis factor.

Table 2 The effect of Crohn's disease patient serum withdrawn before anti-tumor necrosis factor-α therapy on forkhead transcription factor 3, glucocorticoid-induced tumour necrosis factor receptor and interferon γ specific mRNA expression (relative units) and interferon γ, interleukin-5 and interleukin-17 secretion (pg/mL) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from healthy volunteers (target cells)

	RT-qPCR						ELISA
Patient No.	FOXP3	FOXP3 PHA	GITR	GITR PHA	IFNγ	IFNγ PHA	IFNγ PHA	IL-5 PHA	IL-17 PHA
1	4.9	53.8	10.8	65.0	1.8	11.7	1580.0	8.4	0.0
2	8.2	65.4	18.7	175.9	3.8	30.5	37 400.0	80.5	19.4
3	12.9	127.7	30.8	452.9	11.6	128.9	172 000.0	187.0	239.0
4	9.2	153.7	32.5	399.2	5.0	52.0	97 600.0	154.0	265.0
5	10.0	68.4	22.8	183.2	8.2	22.6	38 100.0	81.5	118.0
6	4.0	4.6	8.9	55.2	1.3	10.4	0.0	0.5	42.7
7	11.5	36.7	22.4	107.0	6.1	19.3	1460.0	8.5	20.9
8	7.9	97.0	17.93	171.0	5.8	26.2	0.0	6.5	82.0
9	4.6	40.7	9.3	66.6	3.0	4.5	0.0	1.0	0.0
10	6.4	68.3	15.8	145.8	4.2	15.8	28.8	4.1	0.0
11	7.4	96.9	17.0	251.4	3.4	36.1	173.0	7.4	0.0
12	6.9	86.4	15.1	217.4	4.3	36.2	223 000.0	144.0	638.0
13	5.2	32.7	14.1	83.0	3.8	5.3	11 600.0	3.3	341.0
14	3.8	81.6	12.7	180.7	2.9	13.5	1660.0	0.5	181.0
15	5.4	31.2	9.9	54.4	3.6	3.3	16 100.0	5.5	310.0

Secretion of interferon (IFN) γ, interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-17 from naive target cells was below detection limit. Phytohemagglutin (PHA) = Target cells activated with phytohemagglutin. RT-qPCR: Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; GITR: Glucocorticoid-induced tumour necrosis factor receptor; FOXP3: Forkhead transcription factor 3.