P020 Characterisation of mucus in patients with Crohn’s disease
Kramer, C.(1)*;Ziegler, J.(1);Alzain, N.(1);Schroeter, S.(1);Almalla, A.(2);Elomaa, L.(2);Addante, A.(3);Kuppe, A.(3);Fentker, K.(4);Nazat Martinez Medina, J.(5);Jarquin-Diaz, V.H.(5);Rulff, H.(6);Gradzielski, M.(6);Forslund, S.(5);Mertins, P.(4);Mall, M.(3);Weinhart, M.(2);Glauben, R.(1);Siegmund, B.(1);
(1)Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Medical Department of Gastroenterology- Infectiology and Rheumatology, Berlin, Germany;(2)Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Berlin, Germany;(3)Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine- Immunology and Critical Care Medicine, Berlin, Germany;(4)Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Society and Berlin Institute of Health, Proteomics, Berlin, Germany;(5)Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and Charité University Hospital, Forslund group, Berlin, Germany;(6)Stranski-Laboratorium für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Institut für Chemie, Berlin, Germany;
Background
Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory condition that can affect all parts of the intestine. Commonly, there is inflammation in the terminal ileum. An intestinal barrier consisting of epithelial cells covered by a mucus layer is on the one hand preventing pathogen invasion while on the other hand allowing the uptake of nutrients. However, despite the significance of the terminal ileum in CD, little is known about the mucus composition and viscoelastic properties in the terminal ileum.
In our study, we wanted to do a comprehensive analysis of the mucus in the terminal ileum of CD patients compared to healthy controls. Thus, we aspire to gain a better understanding of the role of mucus and biophysical and biochemical triggers contained in the mucus layer during the course of ileal inflammation.
Methods
During colonoscopy, native mucus and saline washes containing mucus as well as biopsies from the terminal ileum of 33 CD patients and 25 healthy controls were collected. The disease course and dietary habits of all patients and healthy controls were recorded. Samples were treated according to protocol for different types of analysis such as rheology, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiome. Furthermore, human intestinal organoids were generated from the biopsies. Additionally, we analysed bulk RNA sequencing data from intestinal mucosal biopsies of a cohort of 128 patients, consisting of non-IBD individuals and CD patients.