Assessment of serum B-Cell Activating Factor level as a marker of disease activity in a cohort of Egyptian patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background: Diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) requires clinical examination, serology, radiology, endoscopic and histopathological data. Employment of non-invasive biomarker with high specificity and sensitivity is needed. B-Cell activating factor (BAFF) is one of the tumor necrosis factor members. Myeloid cells are the main producers of BAFF, and its function is to regulate the survival of mature B cells and their development into plasma cells that produce antibodies. Objectives: Our objective was to assess serum B-Cell Activating Factor level as a marker of disease activity in IBD patients. Patients and methods: 90 patients were included, 30 Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, 30 Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients and 30 healthy control subjects. BAFF level was measured in serum samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). CD simple endoscopic score was used for Crohn’s disease (SES-CD) and the Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) and for UC Mayo score. Results: The mean serum BAFF in CD group (8.26 ± 5.72pg/ml) and UC group (9.70 ± 8.93pg/ml) was significantly higher than in control group (3.28 ± 0.99 pg/ml) p2= 0.007, p3<0.001), and no significant difference between CD and UC group p1= 0.635. Serum BAFF correlates with inflammatory markers like Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), fecal calprotectin (FC) in patients with active CD, active UC patients (p<0.001). Conclusion: Serum BAFF could be utilized to evaluate disease activity in IBD patients as it correlates positively with disease activity indices in UC and CD.