Mental health profoundly impacts inflammatory diseases of the body. This is particularly apparent in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), where stressful events in a patient’s life often enhance the severity of subsequent disease flares. Psychological stress is also strongly linked to bowel motility problems in IBD patients. How the state of the brain influences inflammation in […]

Almost all people with ulcerative colitis (UC) make antibodies against a protein dimer called integrin _v_6 on intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) lining the colon. People without UC do not. These “autoantibodies” often occur a decade before UC diagnosis, suggesting they may play a causal role very early in UC onset. Indeed, _v_6 is known to activate one of […]

The etiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is complex and incompletely understood, with interactions between various genetic risks and environmental factors such as the gut microbiome contributing to disease. Further, psychological stress often precedes flare-ups, is associated with colitis severity and stress changes gut microbiome profiles. However, a mechanistic link between stress, the microbiome and […]

Males and females with IBD differ in terms of incidence of disease, symptoms and response to treatments. The underlying reasons are largely unknown. Understanding why these sex differences exist could reveal why many patients develop IBD as they enter young adulthood. Sex hormones such as testosterone surge during adolescence and then circulate at very different […]

The epithelial cells lining the intestine control responses to gut bacteria, limiting intestinal damage in Crohn’s disease. A critical gene in this pathway is DUOX2, which is up-regulated in response to bacteria and helps maintain intestinal health. We discovered that Crohn’s disease patients who carry genetic variants in DUOX2 are more likely to progress to fibrotic […]

People with Crohn’s disease (CD) often experience intestinal fibrosis, a result of chronic inflammation that thickens the gut wall, forms scar tissues and narrows the digestive tract, leading to blockages. This persistent fibrotic process necessitates multiple surgeries over a person’s lifetime. Currently, there are no targeted medications for fibrosis due to a lack of understanding […]

In 1848, a German philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach, first used the phrase, “We are what we eat.” This famous statement is particularly true in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) where a western diet lacking in plant derived components is a well-recognised risk factor. However, we still do not understand how the food we eat can contribute to […]

The bacteria in the human colon can influence gastrointestinal lining cells—intestinal epithelial cells (IECs)—and immune cells within the intestines and throughout the body. One way that bacteria do this is through their metabolites, the chemicals they produce. By influencing IECs and immune cells, gut bacterial metabolites affect resistance and susceptibility to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), […]

Intestinal fungi, collectively known as the mycobiota, have emerged as significant contributors to intestinal disease severity. Our prior research demonstrated the efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation in inducing clinical responses in UC patients associated with decreased fungal colonization over time. Further investigations in mouse models and UC patients revealed that fungi exacerbate disease severity through […]

Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have dysfunctions in gut motility (the movement of muscles in the gastrointestinal tract). Currently, most available therapeutics developed to directly target the gut fail to stabilize symptoms, suggesting that dysfunctions in gut motility could arise from pathological changes occurring outside the gut. Intriguingly, gut motility problems also occur at […]