New molecular insights into inflammatory bowel disease-induced diarrhea

Abstract

Diarrhea is one of the common symptoms that significantly affects quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The clinical manifestation of diarrhea is mainly dependant on the type of IBD and the location, extent and severity of intestinal inflammation. Understanding the pathophysiologic mechanisms of diarrhea in patients with IBD will be beneficial to developing effective treatments for IBD-associated diarrhea. In recent years, modern molecular techniques have been used intensively to dissect the role of the intestinal microbiota, epithelial barrier and the host immune system in the mechanisms of IBD-induced diarrhea. These studies have significantly advanced our knowledge of the mechanisms of IBD-induced diarrhea. In this article, we focus on the new and critical molecular insights into the contributions of the intestinal microbiota, epithelial tight junctions, proinflammatory cytokines and microRNA as potential mechanisms underlying to IBD-induced diarrhea.

Keywords::

• diarrhea
• epithelial barrier
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• intestinal microbiota
• microRNA
• permeability
• proinflammatory cytokines
• tight junction

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by NIH grants AA18729 (Yueming Tang), AA019405 (Ali Keshavarzian) and AA020216 (Ali Keshavarzian), and in part by a mentoring program of the Department of Internal Medicine of Rush University Medical Center (Yueming Tang). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.