IBD-nutrition

This research can lead to a major paradigm shift in common medication for inflammatory bowel disease

Translational IBD research

We closely work with the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam that is an expert and referral centre for IBD and has a longstanding tradition of excellent patient care combined with both clinical and fundamental research activities. Since several years now its fundamental IBD-research is done in the Tytgat Institute. We have a large biobank containing pediatric and adult IBD surgical resection material, as we ex vivo culture possibilities of diagnostic biopsy and blood material. The close collaboration between the Tytgat Institute and the Gastroenterology department is an important strength of our approach. See also IBD-AMC. We have various relevant models for colitis in our lab including acute and chronic innate driven colitis models, and acute and chronic Tcells driven colitis models. See for details on the models of choice for your compound efficacy testing this pdf document.

In vitro and in vivo

At the Tytgat Institute state of the art in vitro assays and in vivo models (used on a routine basis) allow us to investigate the role of pathways relevant to the development of IBD. In a large number of studies we not only used conventional mouse models like DSS- and TNBS-colitis but also the CD45RB T cell transfer model that most closely reflects human IBD. These models were used to establish basic mechanisms in IBD as well as pharmacological and dietary intervention strategies. Since we have broad access to patient tissues and isolated cells we also validate our experimental data by immunological phenotyping and activation of mucosal lymphocytes, dendritic cells and macrophages. These models are optimized for testing of pharmaca, biological, or nutritional interventions to relieve the severity of colitis. An in vivo mouse endoscope has been recently set up to be able to perform life imaging of the colitic lesions, and the recovery due to experimental treatment.