Objective: Evaluation of serum lactadherin level, its correlation with disease activity and certain biochemical parameters in IBD patients.
Methods: The study involved adult IBD patients, comprising 50 with ulcerative colitis (UC), 68 with Crohn’s disease (CD), and 29 healthy controls.
Results: The MFGE8 median concentration was significantly higher in UC versus controls (1914.54 vs. 1392.21; p = 0.017), but not in CD. The median MFGE8 levels in UC and CD patient groups didn’t significantly differ. There was a significant inverse correlation between MFGE8 and CRP (r = –0.283; p = 0.044) and fibrinogen (r = –0.362, p = 0.017) in UC. In active UC, MFGE8 median concentration was higher versus controls (1974.36 vs. 1392.21; p = 0.04) and negatively correlated with CRP (r = –0.482; p = 0.005), WBC (r = –0.391; p = 0.027), and fibrinogen (r = –0.473; p = 0.015). Inactive UC showed negative correlation only with fibrinogen (r = –0.567; p = 0.018). No correlations were found with disease activity measured using appropriate scales, age, BMI, or gender.
Conclusions: Active UC patients show higher MFGE8 levels. These increase inversely with inflamma-tory markers (CRP, WBC, fibrinogen) in active UC, but not in CD.

Oxidative stress (OxS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease (CD). The aim of this study was to examine whether nonenzymatic antioxidants are associated with active CD, by using the FRAP and GSH assay in plasma. Additionally, we measured bilirubin and albumin levels as two individual components of the plasma antioxidant system. A total of 55 patients with established CD, 30 with active CD and 25 with inactive disease, and 25 healthy individuals were prospectively enrolled in this study. We evaluated CD activity index, BMI and blood morphology, platelet count, serum CRP level, and bochemical parameters of OxS: ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), reduced glutathione (GSH) in plasma and bilirubin and albumin levels in serum. Plasma FRAP and GSH concentrations were decreased in both CD groups compared to controls and negatively correlated with CDAI values (FRAP: r = –0.572, p = 0.003; GSH: r = –0.761, p = 0.001), CRP and platelet count. Bilirubin and albumin levels were lower in the serum of active CD patients than inactive CD patients and controls and negatively correlated with the CD activity index (r = –0328, p = 0.036, r = –0.518, p = 0.002) and CRP (r = –0.433, p = 0.002). The decreased FRAP and GSH levels in plasma and bilirubin and albumin levels in serum of patients with active CD compared to inactive CD and controls underlines the importance of OxS in the pathophysiology and activity of CD.