Association Between Serum PADI‐4 Levels and Disease Activity in Ulcerative Colitis Patients

Objectives PADI‐4 is a member of the peptidyl arginine deiminase enzyme family. This enzyme is expressed by inflammatory cells and plays an important role in inflammation and immune responses. In this study, we aimed to evaluate serum PADI‐4 levels in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and to investigate the relationship between PADI‐4 and disease activity. Material and Method Fifty‐one patients with UC and 31 healthy controls were included in this observational study. First, serum PADI‐4 levels in patients with UC and the control group were compared. Subsequently, serum PADI‐4 levels were analyzed in UC patients with active disease and those who are in remission, separately. Finally, the impact of PADI‐4 on predicting disease activity was evaluated by performing correlation analyses between serum PADI‐4 and C‐reactive protein (CRP) in addition to the total Mayo score (TMS) and modified Mayo Endoscopic Subscore (MESS). Results Serum mean PADI‐4 levels were found to be significantly higher in the UC group (1317 ± 818 pg/mL) compared to the control group (873 ± 622 pg/mL) ( p : 0.009). Serum mean PADI‐4 levels were significantly different between the three groups (patients with remission, mild disease, and moderate/severe disease group) ( p : 0.015) (1076 ± 609, 1073 ± 683, and 1802 ± 943 pg/mL, respectively). In Spearman′s correlation analysis, it was determined that there was a positive and significant relationship between PADI‐4 and CRP levels ( r = 0.31, p : 0.027) in addition to TMS ( r = 0.419, p : 0.02) and MESS ( r = 0.417, p : 0.002). The ideal serum PADI‐4 levels for predicting disease activity were found to be 980 pg/mL. Conclusion Our study revealed that serum PADI‐4 levels were higher in patients with UC compared to healthy controls and might be an effective marker to determine disease severity.