生物谷报道:炎症性肠道疾病(inflammatory bowel disease, IBD)是一大类疾病,其中包括克罗恩病(Crohn’s disease)和溃疡性结肠炎。它们属于多基因疾病,并且还与各种不同的环境因素有关。尽管如此复杂,但研究人员在揭示其病因方面还是取得了相当大的进展。Ramnik Xavier 和 Daniel Podolsky对这一领域的最新进展做了综述,其中包括一系列易感基因的发现以及重要环境因素的识别。IBD的遗传学研究表明,表皮屏障功能、以及先天和后天免疫在这类疾病的发病中发挥着作用。关键环境因素包括能够破坏免疫功能的共生细菌。在了解IBD病因方面所取得的进展表明,我们也有可能对心脏病、糖尿病和其他多基因疾病的致病因素进行类似的解析
原始出处:
Nature 448, 427-434 (26 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature06005
Unravelling the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease
R. J. Xavier1,2 & D. K. Podolsky1
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.
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Gastrointestinal Unit and Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and,
Center for Computational and Integrative Biology Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
Correspondence to: D. K. Podolsky1 Correspondence should be addressed to D.K.P. (Email: dpodolsky@partners.org).