The term "Inflammatory Bowel Disease" (IBD) is frequently used to denote two diseases, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). This condition is frequently recorded in the West, and along with development of diagnostic facilities, is beginning to be more commonly found in Indonesia.
The etiology of this disease is still unclear, but it is suspected that environmental, geographic, and genetic factors are involved. Cytokines play a great role in the pathogenesis of IBD, where in IBD there is an unbalance of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inhibitor cytokines. In IBD, there is an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, and alpha TNF in the intestinal mucosa. Such increase significantly correlates with the activity of ulcerative colitis through endoscopic examination,
At this moment, forms of therapy for IBD associated with cytokines are being developed, such as ways to inhibit cytokine synthesis, cytokine release, cytokine activity and the cytokine signaling pathway in the target cell.