Activated platelets in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND: There is an increased risk of thromboembolic complications in inflammatory bowel disease. Activated platelets play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of this disease.

AIM: To evaluate platelet activation in inflammatory bowel disease.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: This study comprised 20 healthy control subjects and a total of 20 patients. Out of them, 4 patients and 16 patients had suffered from Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, respectively. Nine patients were in active phase and 11 were in inactive phase of the disease. To evaluate platelet activation, we used the monoclonal antibodies of mouse anti-human CD42a-Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), CD42b-FITC and mouse anti-human CD62P-phycoerythrin. We assessed the activation of platelets in peripheral blood using flow cytometric analysis.

RESULT: The platelet activation was found to be statistically significantly higher in the active-phase patient group when compared with the control subjects group. On the other hand, it was insignificant in the inactive patient group.

CONCLUSION: The results of our study might suggest that the elevation of CD62P expression in patients with inflammatory bowel disease could be used as a criterion of disease activation. Furthermore, agents with properties to diminish the platelet activation could prevent the development of thromboembolic complications in a patient with inflammatory bowel disease (Fig. 1, Ref. 15).