Feel free to discuss any topic of general interest, so long as nothing you post here is likely to be interpreted as insulting, and/or inflammatory, nor clearly designed to provoke any individual or group. Please be considerate of others feelings, and they will be considerate of yours.
In this study, we evaluated immunohistochemically whether increased thickness of the colon subepithelial collagen layer in diabetic patients relates to collagenous colitis. A total of 100 patients (25 in each group) were included in this study. There were diabetic patients with chronic diarrhea in the first group, diabetic patients without chronic diarrhea in the second group, non-diabetic patients with chronic diarrhea in the third group, and control patients in the fourth group. The endoscopic biopsy specimens were obtained from the rectum, sigmoid colon, and descending colon. The thickness of the subepithelial collagen layer was measured using the ocular micrometer method. The immunohistochemical staining was performed with type 1 collagen and fibronectin antibody. The thickness of the colon subepithelial collagen layer in diabetic patients with or without diarrhea was significantly greater than that in control patients. This thickened subepithelial collagen layer in diabetic patients was stained with fibronectin antibody, but not with type 1 collagen antibody in the immunohistochemical study. These immunohistochemical staining characteristics were not similar to those in collagenous colitis, but were similar to those in normal subjects. Increased colon subepithelial collagen layer thickness in diabetic patients does not relate to collagenous colitis.
I'm not sure what the overall medical significance of that is either, but that observation kinda "knocks the socks off" the significance of that characteristic as a marker used for the diagnosis of collagenous colitis, doesn't it? IOW, a diabetic with lymphocytic colitis will automatically be diagnosed with collagenous colitis, by default.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Hard to say. I didn't have access to the full article, but from what I got out of the abstract it appears that the collagen layer differs between those with diabetes and those with CC. Wonder if any one has looked at lymphocytes within the Colon of Diabetic folks. One interesting thing that I'm sure you all know is that the very same genes involved in diabetes are the same ones involved in celiac disease. Though it's reversed. In diabetes DQ8 has a higer incedence whereas in Celiac disease the higher incidence is with DQ2.
