Research Article (download PDF version - complete 590 kb)

G. Tomasello,¹ C. Sciumè,¹ F. Rappa,² V. Rodolico,³ M. Zerilli,³ A. Martorana,³ G. Cicero,⁴ R. De Luca,⁴ P. Damiani,⁵ F.M. Accardo,⁶ M. Romeo,⁷ F. Farina,² G. Bonaventura,² G. Modica,¹ G. Zummo,² E. Conway de Macario,⁸ A.J.L. Macario,^8,9 F. Cappello^2,9

1 Dipartimento di Discipline Chirurgiche ed Oncologiche, Università di Palermo;
2 Dipartimento di Biomedicina Sperimentale e Neuroscienze Cliniche, Università di Palermo, Italy;
3 Dipartimento di Patologia Umana, Università di Palermo, Italy;
4 Dipartimento di Oncologia, Università di Palermo, Italy;
5 Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e delle Malattie Emergenti, Università di Palermo, Italy;
6 Dipartimento di Contabilità Nazionale ed Analisi dei Processi Sociali, Università di Palermo, Italy;
7 Istituto di Medicina Biologica, Milano, Italy;
8 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland
    at Baltimore, and IMET, Baltimore, MD, USA;
9 Istituto Euro-Mediterraneo di Scienza e Tecnologia (IEMEST), Palermo, Italy

*Correspondence: Prof. Francesco Cappello, Dipartimento di Biomedicina Sperimentale e Neuroscienze Cliniche, Sezione di Anatomia Umana, via del Vespro 129, 90127, Palermo, Italy.
tel./Fax: +39.091.6553580. E-mail: francapp@hotmail.com

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by damage of large bowel mucosa and frequent extra-intestinal autoimmune comorbidities.

The role played in IBD pathogenesis by molecular chaperones known to interact with components of the immune system involved in inflammation is unclear. We previously demonstrated that mucosal Hsp60 decreases in UC patients treated with conventional therapies (mesalazine, probiotics), suggesting that this chaperonin could be a reliable biomarker useful for monitoring response to treatment, and that it might play a role in pathogenesis.

In the present work we investigated three other heat shock protein/molecular chaperones: Hsp10, Hsp70, and Hsp90. We found that the levels of these proteins are increased in UC patients at the time of diagnosis and decrease after therapy, supporting the notion that these proteins deserve attention in the study of the mechanisms that promote the development and maintenance of IBD, and as biomarkers of this disease (e.g., to monitor response to treatment at the histological level).

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