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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Feb 27, 2016; 8(2): 115-123
Published online Feb 27, 2016. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v8.i2.115
Intestinal inflammation and the diet: Is food friend or foe?
Bryant W Megna, Patrick R Carney, Gregory D Kennedy
Bryant W Megna, Patrick R Carney, Gregory D Kennedy, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53792, United States
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, and drafting and critical revision and editing; Kennedy GD granted final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts, financial or otherwise.
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: Gregory D Kennedy, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Vice Chairman of Quality, Associate Chief-Section of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 600 Highland Avenue, K4/736 CSC, Madison, WI 53792, United States. kennedyg@surgery.wisc.edu
Telephone: +1-608-2632521 Fax: +1-608-2658810
Received: July 31, 2015
Peer-review started: August 1, 2015
First decision: November 6, 2015
Revised: November 15, 2015
Accepted: December 8, 2015
Article in press: December 11, 2015
Published online: February 27, 2016
Processing time: 211 Days and 19.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic illness with a paucity of safe and effective treatments, either medically or surgically. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor represents a novel target for future treatments of IBD using dietary ligands of the receptor. Many studies have examined the interplay between the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and gastrointestinal mucosal immunity, though there remains a gap in the understanding of how dietary ligands can modulate this activity. Our objective was to highlight elements of current literature focusing on aryl hydrocarbon receptor biology, IBD, and how their interplay can be activated with dietary “micronutriceuticals”.