Genetics of Crohn's Disease Behaviour

Crohn's disease is probably an heterogeneous entity. This heterogeneity may be linked to either genetics or environment. In particular the behaviour of the disease, i.e. the tendency to develop stricturing and/or penetrating lesions, may be linked to the genetic background. While epidemiological and clinical data suggest the relevance of these behavioural classifications, the progresses in the characterization of the immuno-inflammatory reaction in the bowel wall shed a new light on possible candidate genes for these genetic predispositions to various Crohn's disease behaviours. Association studies an linkage analysis focusing on growth factors, metalloproteinases and their tissue inhibitors as well as cytokines may bring new interesting data in this field.