Mendoza JL, Lana R, Díaz-Rubio M. Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and its relationship with Crohn’s disease. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(4): 417-422 [PMID: 19152445 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.15.417]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Juan Luis Mendoza, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Martin Lagos s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. jmendozah@meditex.es
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2009; 15(4): 417-422 Published online Jan 28, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.417
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and its relationship with Crohn’s disease
Juan Luis Mendoza, Raquel Lana, Manuel Díaz-Rubio
Juan Luis Mendoza, Manuel Díaz-Rubio, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Universidad Complutense, Madrid 28040, Spain
Raquel Lana, Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Universidad Complutense, Madrid 28040, Spain
Author contributions: Mendoza JL, Lana R and Díaz-Rubio M contributed equally to this work.
Supported by Grant from Fundación de Investigación Médica Mutua Madrileña (Professor M Díaz-Rubio)
Correspondence to: Juan Luis Mendoza, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Martin Lagos s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. jmendozah@meditex.es
Telephone: +34-91-3303693
Fax: +34-91-3303785
Received: August 25, 2008 Revised: October 28, 2008 Published online: January 28, 2009
Abstract
The hypothesis postulating that Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) is the cause of Crohn’s disease (CD) has been circulating for many years. Advances in molecular techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction and culture methods, have enabled researchers to demonstrate that there is an association between MAP and CD. Recently, genome-wide association studies have identified novel susceptibility genes for CD, which are critical for generation of an adaptive immune response that is protective against intracellular pathogens, including M. tuberculosis infection. However, the role of MAP as a cause of CD suffered a setback with the report that administration of antimycobacterial therapy failed to lead to a sustained response in CD patients. Accordingly, this review sought neither to confirm nor refute this, but instead to survey recent literature on the role of MAP in CD.
