Seroreactivity of crohn`s disease patients to mycobacterial antigens: original data and analytical review of early literature.

Abstract

The mycobacterial etiology of Crohn’s disease has longtime been the subject of discussion and several studies on this issue have been published. In this paper we set out to critically analyze reports on the humoral response against mycobacterial antigens among Crohn’s disease patients and matched samples of ulcerative colitis, tuberculosis, and healthy controls, published during the decade that followed initial suspicions in the early-mid 1980s. We also provide our own previously unpublished results of the humoral response of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and tuberculosis patients and healthy controls to an adapted paratuberculosis (PPA- 3 antigen) ELISA. Our study indicate that statistical analysis of some studies were not adequate, and that a general signifi cantly (p<0.01) increased reactivity against mycobacterial antigens could be observed in the combined analysis of all available data (meta-analysis). The reactivity of Crohn’s patients did not signfi cantly differ from reactivity of tuberculosis patients against mycobacterial antigens