Gene

"When the digestive immune system's counter-attack is insufficient to clear the threat," Ms. Villani continued, "there is a bacterial infiltration in the intestinal wall through the first line of defense mechanisms.

The digestive immune system will again try to repel the threat, but the effort may not be sufficient, and this usually leads to a vicious cycle that results in chronic inflammation in the intestinal wall. And that is Crohn's Disease."

Researchers at McGill University, Canada, have discovered DNA variations in a gene that increases susceptibility to developing Crohn's Disease.

Their study was published in the January issue of the Journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers pinpointed DNA sequence variants in a gene region called NLRP3 that are associated with increased susceptibility to Crohn's Disease.