Polymorphisms of interleukin-23 receptor in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in a Croatian tertiary center.

The Interleukin-23 signalling pathway is important for the differentiation of TH17 lymphocytes and is involved in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory bowel disease. Polymorphisms in the IL-23 receptor gene were previously found to be associated with Inflammatory bowel disease in various populations. The aim of this study was to determine whether the specific rs11209026 and rs7530511 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the Interleukin-23 receptor gene are associated with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in a Croatian patient population. A total of 50 patients with Crohn's disease and 93 patients with ulcerative colitis, as well as 99 healthy control subjects were included in the study. The results determined a significantly higher occurrence of rs11209026 in control group compared to patients with inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting a protective effect of this polymorphism. The rs11209026 variant was strongly associated with Crohn's disease, but it was absent in ulcerative colitis. However, there was no significant association between the rs7530511 polymorphism with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Associations presented in this study give potentially important insight into the roles of specific Interleukin-23 receptor polymorphisms in Crohn's disease pathogenesis in the Croatian population.

Anti-inflammatory effects of exercise training in the early period after myocardial infarction.

The aim of this investigation was to determine the effect of exercise training on the levels of plasma cytokines and acute phase reactants in the early post acute myocardial infarction (AMI) period. Sixty patients were enrolled into this three-week cardiac rehabilitation study. The mean time from AMI was 7.08 +/- 1.60 days, and the patient mean age was 60 +/- 10 years. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: the control group treated with standard measures, and the group with additional regular moderate-intensity exercise training. Physical activity was based on the ergospirometry test results. Apart from clinical follow-up and routine laboratory analysis we determined the levels of plasma cytokines: tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), soluble TNF-alpha receptor 1 (TNF-alphaSR1), interleukin (IL)-8, IL-10, and acute phase reactants: high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and fibrinogen. The obtained results confirmed the hypothesis that the early post AMI period is an inflammatory state the intensity of which gradually decreases with standard treatment during the first month after AMI, while including patients into early exercise training improves their inflammatory profile by decreasing the level of acute phase reactant and TNF-alphaSR1.