Brief Reports
Vol. 70 No. 2 (2026)
Elevated caspase 3 expression correlates with severe inflammation in Crohn’s disease
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Published: 3 June 2026
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Caspase 3 is a key executioner of apoptotic cell death and contributes to intestinal epithelial homeodynamics. Apoptotic dysregulation has been implicated in Crohn’s disease, yet data on caspase 3 expression across disease activity states remain limited. This study analyzed caspase 3 expression in intestinal biopsies from Crohn’s disease patients. Paraffin-embedded biopsies from 289 individuals were examined, including active disease (mild and severe inflammation), upper gastrointestinal involvement, remission and non-inflamed tissue. Expression in epithelial and immune cells was assessed by immunohistochemistry and scored using the Remmele immunoreactive score (IRS). Caspase 3 expression levels in epithelial cells increased in cases of severe inflammation (p=0.012), and immune cells exhibited even more pronounced expression levels (p<0.001). These findings suggest that caspase 3 expression in epithelial and immune cells may help to distinguish between mild and severe inflammation.
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Ethics Approval
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Approval number: 20-347_1-BR). The specific need for consent to participate was deemed unnecessary according to Ethics Committee of the University of Medicine at ErlangenCRediT authorship contribution
Nafie Sejdiu, Investigation, Data curation, Data interpretation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Michael Naumann, Conceptualization, Supervision, Data interpretation, Writing – review & editing. Michael Vieth, Conceptualization, Supervision, Data interpretation, Writing – review & editing. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Data Availability Statement
The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
How to Cite
1.
Sedju N, Naumann M, Vieth M. Elevated caspase 3 expression correlates with severe inflammation in Crohn’s disease. Eur J Histochem [Internet]. 2026 Jun. 3 [cited 2026 Jun. 8];70(2). Available from: https://www.ejh.it/ejh/article/view/4570
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