Advances in exploring the role of micrornas in inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, result from a dysregulated inflammatory response to environmental factors in genetically predisposed individuals. The list of genetic factors involved in the development of these diseases has considerably increased in last years. However, recently, new promising insights on inflammatory bowel diseases have been produced by studies on microRNAs. MicroRNAs are small non coding RNA molecules, that play a pivotal role in gene expression and regulation. They are involved in many biological processes, such as cellular proliferation and differentiation, signal transduction and, more recently, they have been recognized as also having a role in the innate and adaptative response. In this review we give an overview on the role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases.