Biological therapies of inflammatory bowel disease

The cause of chronic inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease is unknown, and damage to the intestinal mucosa leads to a rather restricted repertoire of lesions. As a result, unambiguous phenotyping of inflammatory bowel diseases has been difficult. Because until recently no useful animal models for inflammatory bowel disease were available, following the introduction of corticesteroids in the 50-ies, research concerning the pathogenesis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease did not yield important new breakthroughs for many years. In the last decade, new techniques became 3