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 o f 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 immune-inflammatory reaction in the bowel wall shed a new light on possible candidate genes for these ge netic predispositions to various Crohn's disease behaviours. Association st udies an linkage analysis focusing on growth factors, metalloproteinases an d their tissue inhibitors as well as cytokines may bring new interesting da ta in this field.