Introduction: Endothelial dysfunction leads to an increased expression of cell adhesion molecules, leukocyte diapedesis, vascular smooth‑muscle tone, excessive permeability of vascular walls, and increased procoagulant activity.
Objectives: We investigated whether serum levels of several endothelial and platelet activation markers correlated with disease activity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Patients and methods: This study included 56 patients with ulcerative colitis, 66 with Crohn disease, and 40 healthy controls. We measured the complete blood count and levels of fibrinogen, C‑reactive protein, albumin, interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor α, E‑selectin, P‑selectin, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP‑1), soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), and microparticles.
Results: There were no significant differences in the median levels of E‑selectin, P‑selectin, MCP‑1, sCD40L, and microparticles between patients with active IBD, those with inactive IBD, and healthy controls. The clinical disease activity assessed with the Mayo scale in the ulcerative‑colitis group was weakly, positively correlated with sCD40L (R = 0.32, P = 0.02), P‑selectin (R = 0.32, P = 0.02), and inflammatory marker levels. The clinical disease activity index in the Crohn disease group was positively correlated with the markers of inflammation yet not with the markers of endothelial activity.
Conclusions: E‑selectin, P‑selectin, sCD40L, MCP‑1, and microparticle levels do not significantly differ between patients with the varying activity of IBD. However, due to the observed correlations, further studies of a larger patient group should be conducted to confirm our observations.