ABSTRACT
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing disorder that is associated with uncontrolled inflammation in the small and/or large intestine, and can develop into colorectal cancer if the inflammation is not adequately suppressed (Nguyen et al. 2011). There are two major subtypes of IBD: Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). About 1.4 million patients in the United States suffer from IBD, around half of whom have UC. Approximately 2.2 million Europeans suffer from IBD (Ingersoll et al. 2012), and the prevalence rate is on the rise in various low-incidence areas, including southern Europe, Asia, and most 126developing countries. It has been estimated that the total medical expense for IBD therapy will reach nearly $6.2 billion in 2017 (Talaei et al. 2013). Tremendous advances have already been made in identifying risk factors that predispose patients to IBD and assessing the biochemical profiles of the inflammatory process. The factors generally believed to contribute to the development of IBD include genetic background, environmental features (e.g., diet, cigarette smoking, sanitation, and infectious microbes), luminal antigens, and dysregulation of the immune response (Pithadia and Jain 2011). However, the primary etiology of IBD remains elusive (Ingersoll et al. 2012).
