Table 2.

Rectal biopsy results

	Acute infection biopsy		Post infection biopsy
	INF-IBS	INF-CON	INF-IBS	INF-CON	NOR-CON
Interval from onset to biopsy (days)	5 (1)	4 (1)	108 (14)	98 (4)	—
IL-1β mRNA:β-actin (×10−2)	9.8 (1.3)**	3.6 (0.8)	16.6 (1.9)†††	4.4 (0.3)	6.3 (0.7)
IL-1ra mRNA:β-actin (×10−2)	5.3 (0.4)	8.6 (1.3)	7.4 (1.1)	6.6 (0.4)	4.5 (0.9)

INF-IBS, patients who developed irritable bowel syndrome after acute gastroenteritis; INF-CON, patients who returned to normal bowel habits after acute gastroenteritis; NOR-CON, normal controls.

IL-1β, interleukin 1β; IL-1ra, interleukin 1 receptor antagonist.

Results are expressed as mean (SEM).

**p<0.005 versus INF-CON; †††p<0.001 versus INF-CON and NOR-CON. There were no statistically significant differences between the three groups for IL-1ra mRNA expression.