Blood-based DNA methylation in Crohn’s disease and severity of intestinal inflammation

Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in the application of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify potential susceptibility loci which may contain genes predisposing to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). With over 200 identified, there are now ongoing efforts to identify the susceptibility genes associated with these loci, and the mechanisms involved in gene-environmental interactions.