Table 1.

Characteristics of patients with ulcerative colitis (n = 31) and non-inflamed controls (n = 27) ^a.

	UC.I n = 17	UC.nI n = 14	Cntrl n = 27
Gender (male/female)	6/11	6/8	10/17
Age (years) b	35 (18–68)	43.5 (23–65)	39 (19–81)
Smoker (yes/previous/no/no data)	3/3/9/2	0/1/12/1	0/2/19/6
Concomitant drug treatment c
AS	2	7	0
AS, CS	4	0	0
AP, TP	0	2	0
AS, CS, TP	2	1	0
ATA, CS, TP	1	0	0
CS	1	1	0
CS, TP	1	0	0
TP	0	1	0
None	6	2	27

^a Inflamed (UC.I) and non-inflamed (UC.nI) colorectal mucosa from UC patients were compared to non-inflamed colonic mucosa (Cntrl) obtained from a control group of patients referred for endoscopic examination due to gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., diarrhea, fecal blood, or abdominal pain; n = 19), anemia (n = 1) or screening for colorectal cancer (n = 7) with the following findings: diverticulosis (n = 1), polyps (n = 2), low-grade dysplasia adenomas (n = 1), colorectal cancer (n = 1), hemorrhoids (n = 1), radiation proctitis (n = 1), or without any abnormal histopathological findings pathological findings (n = 20). ^b Median (range) values are given. ^c The following drugs were used individually or in combination: allopurinol (AP; 2 UC.nI), aminosalicylates (AS; 8 UC.I and 8 UC.nI), anti-TNF-α-antibodies (ATA; 1 UC.I), corticosteroids (CS; 9 UC.I and 2 UC.nI), thiopurines (TP; 4 UC.I and 4 UC.nI).