Bowel Disease

Decreased total and corrected antioxidant capacity in patients with
inflammatory bowel disease.

Oxidative stress and depletion of antioxidants may play a key role in the
pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-related intestinal damage. A
new automated assay for the determination of blood total antioxidant capacity
(TAC), based on the crocin bleaching method, has been used for the measurement of TAC and corrected TAC (cTAC) in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) in comparison to healthy controls (HC). Ninety-four
patients with UC, 97 patients with CD, and 72 HC were included in this study.
Serum TAC was measured in all patients and controls on an Olympus AU-600
chemistry analyzer using a TAC kit. cTAC was calculated from TAC after
subtraction of the interactions due to endogenous uric acid, bilirubin and
albumin. Mean serum TAC as well as cTAC levels were significantly lower in both
UC and CD patients compared with HC (P < 0.0001). Patients with active UC had
no different TAC and cTAC compared to those with inactive disease. Patients
with active CD had significantly lower mean TAC compared to those with inactive
disease but cTAC was not different between the two phases of disease activity.
Patients with proctitis had significantly higher TAC and cTAC compared to
patients with left-sided colitis and total colitis. In CD patients no
association between disease localization and these markers was found. TAC and
cTAC are significantly reduced in IBD patients compared with controls
irrespective of disease activity. The decreased antioxidant defenses may be a
primary phenomenon severely compromising the mucosa and therefore increase
susceptibility to oxidative tissue damage.