Influence of disease site and activity on peripheral neutrophil function in inflammatory bowel disease

Reactive oxygen species, released by phagocytes, are involved in tissue inj ury in inflammatory bowel diseases. The aim of our study was to evaluate pe ripheral neutrophil function in patients with ulcerative colitis (N = 66) a nd Crohn's disease (N = 62) with respect to disease activity and extent, us ing chemiluminometry after three stimuli. Twenty-seven healthy subjects wer e enrolled as controls. Neutrophils from ulcerative colitis and Crohn's dis ease patients had a significantly higher response than those from controls following phorbol myristate acetate (86.6 +/- 6.5, 173.8 +/- 11.9, 167.5 +/ - 12.2 mV, P < 0.0001), formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (39.5 +/- 3.4, 41.3 +/- 2.7, 58.6 +/- 4.7 mV, P < 0.001), and zymosan (142.6 +/- 10.4, 22 3.7 +/- 8.9, 231.2 +/- 9.5 mV, P < 0.0001) administration. The increased re sponse was observed during both active disease and remission. The highest c hemiluminescence values were found in patients with active ulcerative panco litis and ileal Crohn's disease. The activation of circulating neutrophils may indicate persistent intestinal inflammation or may be triggered by lumi nal factors even in the absence of symptoms.