COMMENTARY

Crohn's disease

Granuloma formation in the different phenotypes of Crohn’s disease

F Hofstaedter

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr F Hofstaedter
Institute of Pathology, University of Regensburg, F J Strauss Allee 11, Regensburg D 93042, Germany; ferdinand.hofstaedter@klinik.uni-regensburg.de

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Granulomas may be more than diagnostic tools and could be significant in the biology and clinical course of Crohn’s disease

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Keywords: epithelioid granulomas; Crohn’s disease; phenotypes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Our immunological and molecular knowledge base¹ in idiopathic chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has seen a tremendous increase over the past few years. Laboratory application of sophisticated new methodologies has revealed a plethora of agonistic and antagonistic factors involved in the pathogenesis of both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Proinflammatory and Th2 derived anti-inflammatory cytokines are secreted by and act on various different cell types by forming a complex network of interdigitating molecular pathways with profound effects on epithelial cells, lymphocytes, endothelial cells, and monocytes. This multilayered interplay of humoral factors and various cells at different stages of differentiation appears similar to a symphony where the end result is perfect yet the role of various single instruments remains obscure to the casual listener.

Some of the newly discovered pathways have been utilised to develop new therapeutic strategies² and molecular genetic studies in particular have provided fascinating new insights . . . [Full text of this article]

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• Rubio, C A, Orrego, A, Nesi, G, Finkel, Y (2007). Frequency of epithelioid granulomas in colonoscopic biopsy specimens from paediatric and adult patients with Crohn's colitis. J. Clin. Pathol. 60: 1268-1272 [Abstract] [Full Text]