Appendectomy and protection against ulcerative colitis.

TL;DR: It is concluded that infectious exposures and early bacterial colonization, which are associated with better hygiene early in life and that influence immune function, and possibly oral contraceptives, remain the only exposures of interest for future research into the aetiology of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

TL;DR: Emerging epidemiologic evidence has confirmed the association of many of these factors with incident disease using prospective data and laboratory data has supported their mechanistic plausibility and relevance to intestinal inflammation.

TL;DR: In the appendix of UC patients, the CD4/CD8 ratio is significantly increased, and the proportion ofCD4+CD69+ (early activation antigen) T cells, but not of CD4+HLA-DR+ (mature activation antigen), suggests that the appendix may be a priming site in the development of UC.

TL;DR: The prevalence of Crohn’s disease was higher and the prevalence of ulcerative colitis was lower after appendectomy than in controls, and pregnancy rates increased after appendicitis compared with controls in most studies and mortality was low.

TL;DR: There is no justification for health care providers to change the Surgeon General's recommendations on smoking or tobacco use for ulcerative colitis patients specifically and a review of the literature, meta-analysis of selected studies, and assessment of causality criterion suggest that not smoking and ulceratives colitis and smoking and Crohn's disease are consistent with a causal relationship.

TL;DR: It is suggested that ALF, rather than PP, is the priming site of cells involved in the disease process and plays an important role in the development of IBD in TCR-alpha-/- mice.

TL;DR: Appendectomy appears to protect against ulcerative colitis, and a random sample of 100 cases and 100 controls to validate the subject's history of appendectomy confirmed this.

TL;DR: Appendiceal orifice inflammation as a skip lesion of ulcerative colitis is not rare, is more frequently observed in patients with less extensive disease, and is not the result of patchy improvement due to medical therapy.