Allantoin as A Biomarker of Inflammation in an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Mouse Model: NMR Analysis of Urine

Crohn s disease (CD) is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that is characterised by destructive inflammation of the intestinal wall. Current methods for determining inflammation of the bowel are costly, time consuming and can cause discomfort to the patients. In order to address these problems, biomarker analysis of more accessible tissues is receiving increasing attention. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the promotion of inflammation. Allantoin has recently been reported as a biomarker for oxidative stress in human serum and urine. This paper investigates allantoin as a biomarker of inflammation in a mouse model of CD. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was used to analyse allantoin in urine from the mdr1a -/- mouse which is a model of CD. The data show that the levels of allantoin are strongly correlated with histological injury scores of mouse colonic tissue samples. Allantoin appears to be a useful biomarker of gut inflammation, involving oxidative stress, in a mouse model of CD and may be a potential biomarker in human CD studies.