Phlebosclerotic colitis that was difficult to distinguish from collagenous colitis

Phlebosclerotic colitis is a rare and recently known disease entity and its etiology is still to be elucidated. Some phlebosclerotic colitis cases are difficult to distinguish from collagenous colitis because of the similarity of pathological findings. In all Japanese case reports of phlebosclerotic colitis in which an association with the use of Chinese herbal medicine is suspected, sansisi (gardenia fruit) was included, suggesting pathogenesis of this disease. We report a case of phlebosclerotic colitis that wasdifficult to be distinguished from collagenous colitis, and an association with the use of Chinese herbal medicine was suspected as the cause of the disease.     

Possible pro‐inflammatory role of heparin‐binding epidermal growth factor‐like growth factor in the active phase of systemic sclerosis

Heparin‐binding epidermal growth factor (EGF)‐like growth factor (HB‐EGF) is a member of the EGF family growth factors, which affects multiple aspects of the wound healing process such as epithelialization, wound contraction and angiogenesis. In our study, we measured the serum HB‐EGF levels of 51 systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients, which showed a significant increase compared with those of 20 normal subjects. Further analysis revealed a positive correlation between the HB‐EGF level and pulmonary ground‐glass score but no correlation between the former and pulmonary fibrosis score. Other findings include: a significant increase of serum sialylated carbohydrate antigen KL‐6 levels and significant shortness of disease duration in the diffuse cutaneous SSc patients with elevated HB‐EGF levels; and significantly higher HB‐EGF levels in the presence of Raynaud's phenomenon, in that of telangiectasia, and in the absence of contracture of phalanges in all SSc patients. We then evaluated HB‐EGF mRNA levels of fibroblasts harvested from skin samples of the SSc patients and those of foreskin‐derived fibroblasts treated with transforming growth factor‐β, both of which were significantly higher than each control. In conclusion, we speculate that HB‐EGF plays a pro‐inflammatory role in the active skin and lung lesions of SSc.