Changes Over Time in the Lémann Index and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Disability Index in a Prospective Cohort of Patients With Crohn's Disease

BACKGROUND

Crohn's disease (CD) is a progressive, destructive, and disabling disorder. Our study aimed to assess changes over time in the Lémann index (LI) and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Disability Index (IBD-DI) in a cohort of CD patients.

METHODS

This was a single-center prospective cohort study of 130 consecutive CD patients with a follow-up of at least 4 years. The LI 1 and the IBD-DI 1 questionnaires were assessed in 2016 and again between September 2020 and October 2021 (LI 2 and IBD-DI 2).

RESULTS

Of the 130 patients with assessment of both LI 1 and IBD-DI 1, 61 had calculation of the LI 2 and 98 patients answered the IBD-DI 2 questionnaire, with a median time between the 2 evaluations of 4.2 years. The LI increased for 16 (26%), decreased for 26 (43%), and remained unchanged for 19 (31%) patients. The median LI did not change over time (9.6 vs 9.3; P = .14). Clinical disease activity was significantly associated with bowel damage progression. A high initial LI (>7.9) was not associated with CD progression (surgery, drug dose escalation, or change of biologic). The IBD-DI decreased for 59 (60.2%), increased for 37 (37.8%), and remained unchanged for 2 (2%) patients. The median IBD-DI decreased significantly over time (23.2 vs 21.4; P = .006). There was no correlation between the 2 indexes.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first prospective cohort study assessing changes over time in both the LI and the IBD-DI in CD patients. After 4 years, the LI appeared to be stable and the IBD-DI decreased, with no correlation between the 2 indexes.

Changes in HLA-B27 Transgenic Rat Fecal Microbiota Following Tofacitinib Treatment and Ileocecal Resection Surgery: Implications for Crohn's Disease Management

The therapeutic management of Crohn's disease (CD), a chronic relapsing-remitting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is highly challenging. Surgical resection is sometimes a necessary procedure even though it is often associated with postoperative recurrences (PORs). Tofacitinib, an orally active small molecule Janus kinase inhibitor, is an anti-inflammatory drug meant to limit PORs in CD. Whereas bidirectional interactions between the gut microbiota and the relevant IBD drug are crucial, little is known about the impact of tofacitinib on the gut microbiota. The HLA-B27 transgenic rat is a good preclinical model used in IBD research, including for PORs after ileocecal resection (ICR). In the present study, we used shotgun metagenomics to first delineate the baseline composition and determinants of the fecal microbiome of HLA-B27 rats and then to evaluate the distinct impact of either tofacitinib treatment, ileocecal resection or the cumulative effect of both interventions on the gut microbiota in these HLA-B27 rats. The results confirmed that the microbiome of the HLA-B27 rats was fairly different from their wild-type littermates. We demonstrated here that oral treatment with tofacitinib does not affect the gut microbial composition of HLA-B27 rats. Of note, we showed that ICR induced an intense loss of bacterial diversity together with dramatic changes in taxa relative abundances. However, the oral treatment with tofacitinib neither modified the alpha-diversity nor exacerbated significant modifications in bacterial taxa induced by ICR. Collectively, these preclinical data are rather favorable for the use of tofacitinib in combination with ICR to address Crohn's disease management when considering microbiota.