Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis and the etiology of Crohn's disease: Controversy resolution requires the patient perspective, not the clinician perspective.

摘要

The recent review article by Rosenfeld and Bressler on Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) and Crohn's disease (CD) raises the level of awareness of the zoonotic potential of this enigmatic organism. There was an important omission in their review. A recent genomewide study from China (1) showed that a high proportion of leprosy patients have many of the same genetic mutations found in patients with CD including the NOD2/CARD15 mutation. An accompanying editorial (2) suggested that these findings lend support to the mycobacterial theory in CD.