Abstract

About 5%–7% of the general population in Western societies are affected by immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (El-Gabalawy et al., 2010) that include, but are not limited to, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD includes Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). In the United States, there are more than 1 million people suffering from IBD (Kappelman et al., 2007; Loftus, 2004). The prevalence is increasing. Although a number of medications are available for the treatment of symptoms of IBD, they do not cure the diseases and about one-third of patients with IBD will have to undergo surgical resection (El-Gabalawy et al., 2010) Therefore, novel and effective therapies are needed for IBD.