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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2018; 24(1): 15-22
Published online Jan 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i1.15
Updated review on immune factors in pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease
Na Li, Rui-Hua Shi
Na Li, Rui-Hua Shi, Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongda Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China
Na Li, Clinical Medical School of Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Li N mainly contributed to this work; Li N wrote the manuscript and performed the majority of literature reading; Shi RH designed the study and provided the financial support for this work.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81570503.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.
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: Rui-Hua Shi, DA, MD, PhD, Professor, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongda Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China. ruihuashi@126.com
Telephone: +86-25-83272251 Fax: +86-25-83272251
Received: November 2, 2017
Peer-review started: November 3, 2017
First decision: November 14, 2017
Revised: November 23, 2017
Accepted: November 27, 2017
Article in press: November 27, 2017
Published online: January 7, 2018
Processing time: 65 Days and 13.5 Hours
Abstract

Although the incidence of Crohn’s disease (CD) in China is not as high as that in European and American countries, there has been a clear increasing trend in recent years. Little is known about its pathogenesis, cause of deferment, and the range of complications associated with the disease. Local and international scholars have presented many hypotheses about CD pathogenesis based on experimental and clinical studies, including genetic susceptibility, immune function defects, intestinal microflora disorders, delayed hypersensitivity, and food antigen stimulation. However, the specific mechanism leading to this immune imbalance, which causes persistent intestinal mucosal damage, and the source of the inflammatory cascade reaction are still unclear. So far, the results of research studies differ locally and internationally. This paper presents the most current research on immune factors in the pathogenesis of CD.

Keywords: Pathogenesis; Immune; Immunotherapy; Intestinal inflammation; Crohn’s disease; Cytokines; Lymphocytes; T lymphocytes

Core tip: It is now clear that Crohn's disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease that involves at least the intestinal mucosal immune system, when the mucosal immune system is invaded by food or bacterial antigens. However, it is worth mentioning that the mechanism remains unclear. Whether activation of the immune system is the internal defects (constitutive activation or regulation mechanism disorder) or changes in the epithelial mucosal barrier leading to continuous stimulation is still not clear. The mechanism of CD is intensively studied by domestic and foreign scholars on the immune destruction. Here we summarize the latest research status on immune factors in the pathogenesis of CD with regard to the mechanisms about T-lymphocyte immunity, innate lymphocyte immunity, cytokines and immune therapy.