Complex chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have yet to completely surrender the secrets to their etiology and pathogenesis. Nevertheless, investigation has been successful in shedding new light on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying Grohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), and outlining the legitimate targets of therapeutic intervention. In this section of Current Opinion in Gastroenterology, progress in various aspects of basic and clinical IBD research is presented in a series of articles that are sequentially organised. The reader is taken from new insights into mechanisms of intestinal tissue damage and repair, to the role intestinal flora and nutrition play in such mechanisms, to how to control the action of the immune system and the flora, through traditional and novel therapeutic interventions, to current efforts to rationally study and treat children with IBD.
展开▼
