Biomedical Letters

Psychological Stress Exacerbates Development of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Yadav Gajendra Prasad, Wang Xiao Lei, Liu Zhanju*

Department of Gastroenterology, The Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that considers Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a degenerative, reverting, remitting as well as a crippling disorder with unidentified etiology. Recent data demonstrate that the stress stimulated impairment in the gastrointestinal inflammation may be mediated via alterations in luminal bacterial and impairment in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and through mucosal mast cells as well as mediator such as corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF). This article reviews the possible mechanisms such as alteration in sensory, motor, and secretory gastrointestinal function, increasing permeability as well as alterations in the immune system that changes stress into IBD. The current knowledge of possible connections of impairment of brain-gut interaction in the pathogenesis of IBD are also reviewed in this article.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease, corticotrophin releasing factor, psychological stress.

Received March 06, 2016 Revised April18, 2016 Accepted April 30, 2016

*Correspondence: Liu Zhanju Email zhanjuliu@yahoo.com Contact: +86 21 66301164 Fax: +86 21 66303983