Irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease: infectious gastroenteritis-related disorders?

Infectious gastroenteritis may be one of the important factors in the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with affected individuals often categorized as having post-infectious IBS (PI-IBS), and is linked to the onset of symptoms in approximately 10-20% of patients diagnosed with IBS. Intestinal mucosal infiltration of T cells and mast cells, and enterochromaffin cell hyperplasia are significant immunological and pathological findings that reveal the pathogenesis of PI-IBS, and results of laboratory studies using animal models of PI-IBS clearly support clinical evidence. Recently, infectious gastroenteritis has also been suggested to be associated with the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and various studies have suggested that individuals with IBS or IBS-like symptoms may be susceptible to initiation of IBD. However, it is still unclear whether infectious gastroenteritis is directly or indirectly (through PI-IBS) linked to the initiation of IBD. Additional studies are necessary to understand the clinical overlap among infectious gastroenteritis, IBS, and IBD.