Antibodies to GP2, the major zymogen granule membrane glycoprotein, in inflammatory bowel diseases

It was with interest that we read the paper by Roggenbuck et al 1 in a recent issue of Gut , where GP2, the major zymogen granule membrane glycoprotein, is demonstrated to be the autoantigen of pancreatic antibodies in Crohn's disease. The authors concluded that quantification of this novel Crohn's disease-specific marker could significantly improve the serological diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease. A commercial assay for the detection of anti-GP2 antibodies has recently become available (Generic Assays, Dahlewitz/Berlin). In the present paper, we evaluated this assay on a large well-characterised study population. The patient cohort has been previously described2 and consisted of 164 patients with Crohn's disease, 118 patients with ulcerative colitis, and 75 control patients with other gastrointestinal diseases (non-inflammatory bowel disease diarrhoeal illnesses). One hundred blood donors were included as well. The diagnosis of ulcerative coliltis or Crohn's disease was based on accepted clinical …