Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2022; 28(35): 5230-5232
Published online Sep 21, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i35.5230
Urotensin II level is elevated in inflammatory bowel disease patients
Yan Zhang, Guo-Xun Chen
Yan Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Puren Hospital of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, Hubei Province, China
Guo-Xun Chen, Department of Nutrition, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States
Author contributions: Zhang Y and Chen GX read the commented article, wrote the letter, and revised the letter according to the reviewers’ comments; all authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guo-Xun Chen, PhD, Associate Professor, Research Scientist, Department of Nutrition, The University of Tennessee, Room 229, Jessie Harris Building, 1512 West Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States. gchen6@utk.edu
Received: January 27, 2022
Peer-review started: January 27, 2022
First decision: April 10, 2022
Revised: April 13, 2022
Accepted: September 1, 2022
Article in press: September 1, 2022
Published online: September 21, 2022
Processing time: 231 Days and 9.2 Hours
Abstract

It was reported that the urotensin II (U-II) level in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are significantly higher than in controls. To provide future guidance for the management of cardiovascular risk factors in IBD patients, the sample size of the current study appears to be limited, and more clinical samples to compare U-II levels in IBD patients and controls are needed. This will clarify the possible roles of inflammation factors and related signaling pathways (like EPK1/2, NF-κB and Rho/ROCK) in the pathophysiology of IBD. Therefore, large multicenter studies should be done to confirm the findings and underlying mechanisms in the future.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease; Urotensin II; Inflammatory factors; High sensitivity C reactive peptide

Core Tip: An observational report showed that the level of urotensin II (U-II) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients was significantly increased compared with that in controls. The authors also reported that blood U-II level was positively correlated with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and severe endoscopic features of the disease. This study provides us with a new role of U-II in IBD, which warrants larger, multicenter clinical and basic studies to determine the mechanisms by which U-II triggers inflammatory responses and activates signaling pathways (EPK1/2, NF-κB and Rho/ROCK).