Unravelling the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease

Nature. 2007 Jul 26;448(7152):427-34. doi: 10.1038/nature06005.

Abstract

Recently, substantial advances in the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have been made owing to three related lines of investigation. First, IBD has been found to be the most tractable of complex disorders for discovering susceptibility genes, and these have shown the importance of epithelial barrier function, and innate and adaptive immunity in disease pathogenesis. Second, efforts directed towards the identification of environmental factors implicate commensal bacteria (or their products), rather than conventional pathogens, as drivers of dysregulated immunity and IBD. Third, murine models, which exhibit many of the features of ulcerative colitis and seem to be bacteria-driven, have helped unravel the pathogenesis/mucosal immunopathology of IBD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Autophagy
  • Colitis / immunology
  • Colitis / pathology
  • Colitis / physiopathology
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease
  • Humans
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / genetics
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / immunology
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / microbiology
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / physiopathology*
  • Intestinal Mucosa / immunology
  • Intestinal Mucosa / pathology
  • Intestinal Mucosa / physiopathology