Kazuki Kakimoto ¹, Minoru Matsuura ², Takumi Fukuchi ³, Hitoshi Hongo ⁴, Tsuguhiro Kimura ⁴, Nobuo Aoyama ⁵, Yorihide Okuda ⁶, Kazuki Aomatsu ⁷, Noriko Kamata ⁸, Yoko Yokoyama ⁹, Chiemi Mizuno ¹⁰, Takuya Inoue ¹, Takako Miyazaki ¹, Shiro Nakamura ¹, Kazuhide Higuchi ¹, Hiroshi Nakase ¹¹ , Crohns Colitis 360. 2020 Sep 23;2(4):otaa073.

GMA shows effectiveness in inducing remission in UC patients not receiving steroid.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34192247/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7797742/pdf/otaa073.pdf

Kentaro Tominaga, Kenya Kamimura, Hiroki Sato, Masayoshi Ko, Yuzo Kawata, Takeshi Mizusawa, Junji Yokoyama, and Shuji Terai, World J Clin Cases. 2020 Jun 6; 8(11): 2092–2101.

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a neutrophilic dermatosis clinically characterized by the presence of painful skin ulcerations with erythematous. As it is frequently associated with inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis, gastroenterologists should be familiar with the disease including therapeutic options. Pyoderma gangrenosum is one of the neutrophilic dermatoses often complicated with ulcerative colitis. The corticosteroid and other immune modulator have been used for the treatment, however, as its disease mechanism has not been clarified, there is no additional option for those who showed poor response and refractory to the conventional therapies. Therefore, we have conducted a review focusing on the cytapheresis for PG in cases of inflammatory bowel diseases. A literature search was conducted to extract studies published in the last 20 years, with information on demographics, clinical symptoms, treatment, and the clinical course from a total of 22 cases reported and our recent case. In most patients, cytapheresis was associated with improvement or resolution of PG after failure of conventional therapeutic options such as corticosteroids, antibiotics, immunosuppressive agents and immunoglobulin. Based on the recent reports, we have summarized the clinical course of 23 cases and efficacy of cytapheresis..Cytapheresis is helpful in the majority of patients with PG refractory to medical treatment associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and could be further studied in a multicenter, randomized trial.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281039/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281039/pdf/WJCC-8-2092.pdf

Rodolfo Sacco ¹, Antonio Romano, Alessandro Mazzoni, Marco Bertini, Graziana Federici, Salvatore Metrangolo, Giuseppe Parisi, Cecilia Nencini, Celeste Giampietro, Michele Bertoni, Emanuele Tumino, Fabrizio Scatena, Giampaolo Bresci, J Crohns Colitis. 2013 Dec;7(12):e692-7

GCAP therapy is safe and effective in inducing and maintaining clinical remission both in SD and in SR patients affected by either UC or CD.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23870727/

Keiko Okuma,Kouichi Mitsuishi,Toshio Hasegawa,Hitoshi Tsuchihashi,Hideoki Ogawa,Shigaku Ikeda,

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-9987.2007.00498.x

Abstract: Granulocytapheresis (GCAP) therapy is a newly developed therapeutic modality for inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by the appearance of erythematous macules and plaques with pustules or nodules that rapidly progress to ragged, undermined multiple ulcers. We attempted GCAP therapy in a patient with PG resistant to prednisolone and various other immunosuppressants. GCAP therapy was initiated at three- to four-day intervals and a good response from all skin lesions, with eventual total epithelialization, was observed after 10 sessions of this therapy. Furthermore, circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 (IL-8) and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) also decreased after the GCAP therapy. Our results suggest that GCAP is a safe and useful tool for the treatment of intractable PG, and that IL-8 and G-CSF are likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of PG.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-9987.2007.00498.x

David Schwartz ¹, John R Ferguson, Curr Med Res Opin . 2007 Nov;23(11):2715-28.

Background: A broad range of pharmacologic therapies are available to treat active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including 5-aminosalicylate preparations, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants (e.g., azathio prine/6-mercaptopurine [AZA/6-MP] or methotrexate). Although these therapies are effective, up to 60% of patients are refractory or intolerant. Biologic therapies, such as the anti-TNF agent infliximab, offer promise but are not without controversy; despite many positive reports, steroid-refractory patients are less likely than other individuals to respond to infliximab. Effective, long-term therapies that do not add to the adverse-effects burden in patients with IBD are needed. Of these, granulocyte/monocyte apheresis (GMA) is one promising approach.

Scope: PubMed and relevant congresses databases were searched using the terms ‘granulocyte/monocyte apheresis,’ ‘GMA,’ ‘leukocytapheresis,’ ‘Adacolumn,’ and ‘Cellsorba.’ These studies were further selected to include only those focusing on IBD. A time frame of 2000-2006 was used.

Findings: Data from open-label trials show that patients with moderate-to-severe IBD refractory to conventional pharmacologic treatment achieved clinical response and/or remission after treatment with GMA. Furthermore, recent small open-label trials of GMA show increased rates of induction and maintenance of response/remission in steroid-naïve IBD patients.

Conclusions: The remission rates seen in these open-label clinical trials of GMA are consistent with those of currently available pharmacologic therapies for IBD. However, the majority of these trials enrolled only small numbers of patients, were largely open-label, and were of limited duration. These data must be confirmed in well-controlled, large-scale clinical trials

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17894921/

Ritsuko Yanaru-Fujisawa, Takayuki Matsumoto, Shotaro Nakamura, Shuji Kochi, Mitsuo Iida, Futoshi Kohda, Minako Hirahashi, Takashi Yao, Ryuichi Mibu Case Reports Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2005 Aug;11(8):780 DOI: 10.1097/01.mib.0000172558.39767.b7

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16043996/