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Correlation of Age and Serum Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV (DPP IV/CD26) Activity in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are the best known forms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Their etiology is still unclear, but recent studies indicated the involvement of the immune system in the pathogenesis. Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV/CD26) is a membrane-bound multifunctional glycoprotein, acting as a proteolytic molecule, receptor, binding and costimulatory molecule. The proteolytic cleavage of the membrane bound DPP IV results in a soluble form that migrates in the plasma. It has previously been shown that the DPP IV could play a significant role in the pathophysiology of IBD. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of patient's age on the serum DPP IV/CD26 activity in patients affected with IBD. The research was performed on 93 patients, divided in 2 groups: 31 young patients (mean age 13, 8 +/- 1, 7 years, 24 with CD and 7 with UC) and 62 adult patients (age 42, 7 +/- 14, 4 years, 38 with CD and 24 with UC). The control group included 111 healthy blood donors: 46 children (age 13, 8 +/- 2, 8 years) and 65 adults (age 41, 6 +/- 12, 1 years). Serum DPP IV/CD26 activities in both young and adult patients with IBD were found to be statistically sigificantly decreased when compared to their healthy controls. Values correlated inversely with the disease severity for both CD and UC. When comparing serum DPP IV/CD26 activities between young and adult patients with IBD, but even between young and adult healthy controls, it was noticed that serum DPP IV/CD26 activity decreases statistically significantly with age. The results of this study show that serum DPP IV/CD26 could be useful as an available, non-invasive marker in the diagnosis of the disease activity. This research also shows that age-related standard values should be undoubtedly established in clinical laboratory practice because of the age-dependent decrease in serum DPP IV/CD26 activity.

CD26; serum DPP IV; inflammatory bowel diseases; age

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