. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Dec 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Glob Antimicrob Resist. 2016 Sep 20;7:93–101. doi: 10.1016/j.jgar.2016.08.002

Table 1.

Summary of faecal inflammatory biomarkers as possible predictors of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) disease

Biomarker	Clinical indication/prediction	Role in immunopathogenesis	Specific/sensitive to CDI	References
Lactoferrin	Colonic inflammation, CDI severity (when level is elevated)	Innate inflammatory response; related to level of neutrophil translocation	No/no	[97,99–102,107]
Calprotectin	Intestinal inflammatory conditions (when level is elevated)	Innate inflammatory response; correlates with level of released neutrophils	No/no	[103,105,106]
IL-8	CDI severity (when elevated)	Involved in the recruitment of neutrophils to sites of infection	no/yes	[73,99,109,107]
IL-23	May relate to CDI recurrence (when level is decreased)	Lack of a robust immunological response	No/no	[109]
pMK2	Presence of toxigenic C. difficile (when level is elevated)	Key mediator of p38-dependent inflammation	No/–	[107]
pp38	Symptomatic CDI in paediatrics (when level is elevated)	Activation of p38 protein pathway	Yes/no	[99]