B cell-activating factor (BAFF) in children with inflammatory bowel disease.

Fodor, Ioana; Serban, Oana; Serban, Daniela E; Farcau, Dorin; Man, Sorin Claudiu; Dumitrascu, Dan Lucian

BACKGROUND Assessing the inflammation is important in the follow-up of paediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aim to evaluate the value of B cell-activating factor (BAFF) in paediatric IBD as a potential biomarker for follow-up. METHOD We determined BAFF in serum and faeces and faecal calprotectin (CP) in 32 IBD children-16 Crohn's disease (CD) and 16 ulcerative colitis (UC). Twenty-six healthy children and 10 children with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were included as controls. RESULTS No differences were found in serum BAFF between IBD, IBS, and healthy group: 1037.35, 990.9 and 979.8 pg/ml, respectively, all p > 0.05, but faecal BAFF was higher in the IBD group: 15.1, 8.5 and 8.2 pg/ml, respectively, p < 0.05, and higher in the UC group (55.975 pg/ml) compared to the CD group (10.95 pg/ml), p = 0.015. Splitting the IBD group in relation to the CP level, the serum BAFF had no significantly different values between the subgroups, but the faecal BAFF was significantly higher in the >250 μg/g subgroup. Cut-off values of BAFF were calculated. CONCLUSION Faecal BAFF is a promising marker for monitoring the children with IBD, higher levels of BAFF being correlated with high CP. IMPACT Faecal BAFF is a promising marker in monitoring the children with IBD, higher levels of BAFF being correlated with high faecal calprotectin.To our knowledge, this is the first paediatric study concerning BAFF evaluation in IBD.Faecal BAFF levels could be considered a potential non-invasive marker in monitoring IBD activity in paediatric population with clinically mild or inactive disease.Fig. 1Box plots of faecal BAFF concentration in the whole group with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and distinctly on Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) groups compared with the control group.Fig. 2Box plots of serum BAFF concentration in the whole group with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and distinctly on Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) groups compared with the control group.Fig. 3Correlation between faecal calprotectin and faecal BAFF in relation to the whole group of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (a), Crohn's disease (CD) (b) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (c).