Inflammatory bowel disease: Etiology and pathogenesis

The field of gastroenterology offers many challenges to both the clinician and the investigator, but few are as complex and enigmatic as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) have been known for well over one half a century, but why affected individuals spend their lives with a chronic inflammatory process that relentlessly destroys their bowel remains a mystery. Advances, although unequal in...