Intestinal
fibrosis, caused by an excessive deposition of extracellular matrix components, and subsequent
stricture development are a common complication of
inflammatory bowel disease. However, currently there are no
biomarkers which reliably predict the risk of developing intestinal
strictures or identify early stages of
fibrosis prior to clinical symptoms. Candidate
biomarkers of intestinal
fibrosis, including gene variants (i.e.
nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-2 gene), serum
microRNAs (miR-19, miR-29), serum
extracellular matrix proteins (i.e.
collagen,
fibronectin) or
enzymes (i.e. tissue inhibitor of
matrix metalloproteinase-1), serum
growth factors (i.e.
basic fibroblast growth factor, YKL-40), serum anti-microbial
antibodies (i.e. anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and circulating cells (i.e. fibrocytes) have shown conflicting results on relatively heterogeneous patients' cohorts, and none of them was proven to be strictly specific for fibrostenosis, but rather predictive of a disease disabling course. In this review we critically reassess the diagnostic and prognostic value of serum
biomarkers of intestinal
fibrosis in
inflammatory bowel disease.