Current insights in to the pathophysiology of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Theodoros Karantanos1, Theofano Markoutsaki2, Maria Gazouli1

  • 1Laboratory of Biology, University of Athens, School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Greece.

Gut Pathogens
|May 15, 2010
PubMed

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) represents a functional disorder of gastrointestinal tract without the presence of an anatomic defect, in which abdominal pain is relieved with defecation and is associated with altered bowel habits.IBS includes a wide range of symptoms while its pathophysiology is very complicated. Recent studies indicate that the most important mechanisms include visceral sensitivity, abnormal gut motility and autonomous nervous system dysfunction. The interactions between these three mechanisms make bowel's function susceptible to many exogenous and endogenous factors like gastrointestinal flora, feeding and psychosocial factors. Recent data indicate that according to the above mechanisms, the influence of genetic factors and polymorphisms of human DNA in the development of IBS is equally important.

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