Crohn's disease recurrence in a small bowel transplant.

This is a report of a patient with short-bowel syndrome secondary to recurrent surgeries for Crohn's disease who ultimately required small bowel transplantation in 1994. Eight years posttransplantation he developed recurrent Crohn's disease that was responsive to prednisone. From the perspective of advancing our understanding of Crohn's disease pathogenesis this case suggests that intestine-specific antigens may be more important than the classical MHC antigens for the development of Crohn's disease, since this man developed Crohn's disease in both the native intestine and also in the engrafted one.