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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2016; 22(7): 2206-2218
Published online Feb 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i7.2206
miRNAs as new molecular insights into inflammatory bowel disease: Crucial regulators in autoimmunity and inflammation
Xiao-Min Xu, Hong-Jie Zhang
Xiao-Min Xu, Hong-Jie Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang HJ conceived of the study; Xu XM and Zhang HJ analyzed the literature and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81270469.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related 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: Hong-Jie Zhang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. hjzhang06@163.com
Telephone: +86-25-83718836-6920 Fax: +86-25-83674636
Received: April 27, 2015
Peer-review started: May 4, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 28, 2015
Accepted: November 13, 2015
Article in press: November 13, 2015
Published online: February 21, 2016
Processing time: 278 Days and 14.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by chronic relapsing inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. Further understanding of the molecular mechanisms of IBD is helpful to find new therapeutic strategies. miRNAs play crucial regulatory roles in immune cellular differentiation and maturation, and maintaining immune homeostasis. Aberrant expression of miRNAs is present in IBD. Here, we summarize how miRNAs regulate autoimmunity and inflammation, and describe specific miRNA expression profiles in IBD. We also discuss the opportunities in utilizing miRNAs as new biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in IBD.