Case Report
Experimental animal models in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Antonella VetuschiInflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) including Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD) are chronic and progressive inflammatory disorders characterized by transmural tissue damage that promotes an excessive wound-healing response. The intestinal alterations elicit to a distorsion of the tissue architecture that may lead to fibrosis, strictures, stenosis and obstructions [1,2]. The medical treatment currently used in IBD (salicylates, antibiotics, steroids, immunosuppressive drugs, biological therapies) may relieve the inflammatory symptoms but are no effective to improve fibrosis and associate complications that still remain the major causes of surgical interventation [3,4].