• Bacterial interactions
• probiotics
• TGFβ
• IBD
• signal transduction
• IBD models
• gut inflammation
• epithelial cells
• inflammatory bowel disease
• nutrition

We have shown that a diet that is deprived of iron prevents ileitis in a mouse model of Crohn's disease (TNF^deltaARE mice).1 In his comment, Buchman2 was concerned that we misinterpreted our findings, as he supposed that sulphate may be more important than iron in the development of colitis in our rodent experiments. Most importantly, according to the composition of the experimental diets used in our studies (diet C1000 and C1038, Altromin GmbH, Lage, Germany), the total amount of sulphate salts (magnesium sulphate, iron sulphate, manganese sulphate and copper sulphate) in the control diet is comparable with the amount added to the low iron-sulphate diet …