Inflammatory Bowel disease: past, present, and future

Hi everyone:D
A couple of things from this article caught my attention. Prior to reading this (and a few other papers) I had heard of Crohn's disease, UC, and IBD but I didn't have very much knowledge about them. So I found it interesting that in IBD basically the immune system kicks into high gear because it recognizes its own intestinal flora as a pathogen. This elicits an immune response without the ability to down regulate it.
There are inflammatory cells that in the intestinal mucosa that reside at the interface of systemic circulation and the intestinal epithelium. These cells are waiting for some sort of infection to occur to initiate the an inflammatory response. Patients without IBD have controlled continuous inflammation in their intestine however, those with IBD and the like have no ability to control it.
Interestingly enough there are genetic factors that play into this disease. Some people have a predisposition to becoming infected with this disease more than others. Obviously, environmental factors have influence on the development of IBD to include exposure to microbiota.
What I found most interesting in this article was the different types of treatment currently under research. Enteric bypass was used in the 1980's to alleviate symptoms of Crohn's disease, but this was later developed into ileal punch-anal anastomosis.
This paper then continues on to attempt to explain what is happening physiologically in this disease as far as lymphatic intervention.
Investigational research includes either inhibiting or upregulating key factors in the lymphatic signaling processes in an attempt to return bowel inflammation to normal conditions. All in all I thought this was a good paper:D