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
Core Tip

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).