Crohn’s disease is a lifelong inflammatory bowel disease that causes tissue inflammation in the entire gastrointestinal tract, especially at small intestine. Although the exact cause of Crohn's disease remains unknown, immunity imbalance and genetic heredity are believed to be involved. No medicine cures Crohn’s disease, however, inflammation control is necessary to reduce the symptoms. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential of a gene therapy-based strategy to mediate the modulation of immune exacerbation in these patients.

With this purpose, colonic segments were obtained from Crohn’s diagnosed patients who were operated at Hospital La Fe (Valencia). Naked DNA encoding immunomodulatory Interleukin 10 was hydrofected in saline solution (2 ml/cm of bowel) through tributary veins or arteries of affected areas, assisted by X-ray to identify the irrigated area. Tissue samples were collected after gene transfection and cultured in DMEM for 5 days. Concentration of human IL10 protein was quantified in medium at different time points by ELISA.

Presence of IL10 protein in each treated sample was compared with its own control (colonic segment with excluded circulation during gene hydrofection). Although basal production of protein was observed in all samples, higher concentration of IL10 was reached in samples hydrofected through arteries, achieving up to 1284 pg/ml on day 5 (accumulated of 48h) in average, compared to 389 pg/ml observed in control and vein-injected samples.

In conclusion, as observed in other tissues, naked DNA hydrofection was able to mediate efficient protein production in human colonic segments despite their inflammatory affection.