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

Abdelatty, Khaled Ali; Fawzy, Moamen Ayman; Elsheikh, Wafaa Mohamed Hussein; Elfikky, Samar Mohamed; Nassra, Rasha Mohamed Adel; Saad, Hussein Mahmoud Hussein

doi:10.21608/svuijm.2025.345484.2053

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

Document Type : Original research articles

Authors

¹ Internal Medicine Department, Gastroenterology Division, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria , Egypt.

² Medical Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria , Egypt.

10.21608/svuijm.2025.345484.2053

Abstract

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.

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