Manon-Jensen T, Sun S, Lindholm M, et al. - In patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, researchers sought to ascertain if the transmembrane type 23 collagen could be a surrogate marker for disease activity. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was constructed to detect the ectodomain of type 23 collagen (PRO-C23) in serum, and then evaluated its levels in both acute and chronic dextran sulfate sodium colitis models in rats and human inflammatory bowel disease cohorts. They collected serum from 44 Crohn’s disease and 29 ulcerative colitis patients with active and inactive disease for inclusion. The findings revealed that PRO-C23 was increased in rats with active colitis and inflammatory bowel disease patients with active disease. The results demonstrated that PRO-C23 may be applied as a surrogate marker for monitoring disease activity in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.