Infections in the immunopathogenesis of chronic inflammatory bowel disease

Seminars in Immunology
M Merger, K Croitoru

Abstract

In chronic inflammatory bowel disease, self-destructive, exaggerated inflammation seems to occur in the absence of a well defined pathogen. However, epidemiological data strongly suggests that development of disease does not depend on endogenous factors alone. In this review, we summarize how a possible role for microbial factors can be reconciled with the current understanding of etiology and pathogenesis of IBD. The data presented does not support that IBD is an infectious disease nor that it is a self-antigen-specific autoimmune disease, however, recent findings increasingly suggest that tissue damage might be caused by a non-specific autoaggressive inflammation which is driven by common, ubiquitous microbial agents derived from the bacterial flora in the intestinal lumen.

Citations

Jan 20, 2006·Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·Morten HelmsKåre Mølbak
Jan 10, 2002·Clinical Microbiology Reviews·Barbara A HendricksonJudy H Cho
Dec 2, 2004·The Surgeon : Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland·P ChandranO Eremin
Jun 15, 1999·Toxicologic Pathology·M W LeachD M Rennick
Jun 1, 2000·Inflammatory Bowel Diseases·F Shanahan
Oct 25, 2000·Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition·P GuptaS Guandalini

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