Campylobacter concisus: a new character in the Crohn's disease story?

摘要

I read with extreme interest the article by Zhang et al. (7) about a high prevalence of Campylobacter concisus DNA as well as of immunoglobulin G antibodies to C. concisus in children with Crohn's disease. The role of bacteria in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease is well recognized, but an individual responsible microorganism had not been singled out so far (3). The finding that this particular bacterium, already pinpointed as an emerging pathogen in enteric infections (4), may have a pathogenic role in Crohn's disease provides further evidence of the possible therapeutic role of antibiotics and probiotics for that disorder (3).