Sistema Gastrointestinal e Digestivo

Abstrato

Inflammasome Activation P2X7-Dependent in Crohns Disease

Zelante Angelo, Borgoni Riccardo, Falzoni Simonetta, D’Incà Renata, Sturniolo Giacomo Carlo, Cifalà Viviana and Di Virgilio Francesco

The Inflammasome represents an intracellular multiprotein complex belonging to the innate immune system that identifies molecular damage. The activation of the Inflammasome triggers the maturation and secretion of cytokines IL-1β, IL-18, IL-33 which activate on his part inflammatory processes. The most important Inflammasome is NALP3 (NOD-like family) with his components P2X7, NALP3, the adapter ASC and caspase-1. NALP3 and NOD2 polymorphisms are associated with development of Crohn's disease (CD). This study analyzed the expression and function of the NALP3-inflammasome by stimulating in vitro PBMCs of CD patients. We enrolled 62 CD patients: 36 female (58.1%) and 26 male (41.9%) with a mean age of 53.7 years; the control group included 58 subjects (38 female; 20 male; mean age 46 years). The patients have been analyzed with regard to duration, location and disease activity, smoking habits, comorbidities, type of therapy, previous surgery, familiarity for IBD and CRP values. We isolated PBMCs to extract RNA for rt-PCR and proteins for Western Blotting.