The Mesenteric Fat and Intestinal Muscle Interface: Creeping Fat Influencing Stricture Formation in Crohn's Disease

Adipose tissue is present in close proximity to various organs in the human body. One prominent example is fat contained in the mesentery that is contiguous with all abdominal digestive organs including the intestine. Despite the fact that mesenteric fat-wrapping around the inflamed gut (so called "creeping fat") was described as a characteristic feature of Crohn's disease (CD) in the early 1930s, the functional implications of creeping fat have received only recent attention. As a potent producer of fatty acids, cytokines, growth factors, and adipokines, creeping fat plays an important role in regulation of immunity and inflammation. Increasing evidence points to a link between creeping fat and intestinal inflammation in CD, where histopathologic evaluation shows a significant association between creeping fat and connective tissue changes in the bowel wall, such as muscular hypertrophy, fibrosis, and stricture formation. In addition, emerging mechanistic data indicate a link between creeping fat, muscularis propria hyperplasia, and stricturing disease. Information on fat-mesenchymal interactions in other organs could provide clues to fill the fundamental knowledge gap on the role of distinct components of creeping fat in intestinal fibrosis and stricture formation. Future studies will provide important new information that in turn could lead to novel therapeutic agents aimed at prevention or treatment of CD-associated fibrosis and stricture formation.