Topic Highlight
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2015; 21(43): 12274-12282
Published online Nov 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i43.12274
MicroRNA in inflammatory bowel disease: Translational research and clinical implication
Kurt Fisher, Jingmei Lin
Kurt Fisher, Jingmei Lin, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Author contributions: The authors contributed equally to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Jingmei Lin, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, 350 West 11th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States. jinglin@iupui.edu
Telephone: +1-317-4916159 Fax: +1-317-4916419
Received: April 24, 2015
Peer-review started: April 24, 2015
First decision: July 20, 2015
Revised: August 4, 2015
Accepted: October 23, 2015
Article in press: October 26, 2015
Published online: November 21, 2015
Processing time: 208 Days and 10 Hours
Abstract

Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) predominantly includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The pathogenesis of IBD is complex and not completely understood. MicroRNAs belong to a class of noncoding small RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. Unique microRNA expression profiles have been explored in IBD. In this review, we focus on the unique microRNA expression pattern in both tissue and peripheral blood from IBD patients and emphasize the potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The discovery of microRNAs has contributed to our understanding of IBD pathogenesis and might lead to clinical advance in new therapeutics.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease; Ulcerative colitis; Crohn’s disease; MicroRNA; Pathogenesis; Gene expression

Core tip: Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) predominantly includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease. The pathogenesis of IBD is complex and not completely understood. MicroRNAs belong to a class of noncoding small RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. Unique microRNA expression profiles have been explored in IBD. In this review, we focus on the unique microRNA expression pattern in both tissue and peripheral blood from IBD patients and emphasize the potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The discovery of microRNAs has contributed to our understanding of IBD pathogenesis and might lead to clinical advance in new therapeutics.