1. The Innate Immune System: A Trigger for Many Chronic Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases
Inflamm Intest Dis 2016;1: DOI: /
Fig. 1. Intestinal macrophage differentiation in healthy mucosa and CD. Peripheral blood monocytes express innate immune receptors and induce strong inflammatory responses upon stimulation with microbial antigens. Intestinal macrophages in the normal mucosa downregulate these innate receptors and upregulate certain molecules (e.g. gp96), and therefore adapt a ‘tolerogenic' phenotype. In contrast, the differentiation of intestinal macrophages is somehow impaired in patients with IBD, particularly CD. Intestinal macrophages in CD patients respond to microbial antigens and induce inflammatory immune responses, and therefore contribute to disease pathogenesis.
© 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel

2. The Innate Immune System: A Trigger for Many Chronic Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases
Inflamm Intest Dis 2016;1: DOI: /
Fig. 2. Genetic variations associated with IBD that are related to intestinal macrophage/dendritic cell functions. Various ‘IBD risk genes' have been identified. Some of them are related to the function of macrophages and dendritic cells in the intestine.
© 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel