Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: When Natural Friends Turn into Enemies—The Importance of CpG Motifs of Bacterial DNA in Intestinal Homeostasis and Chronic Intestinal Inflammation

Figure 1

Whereas in a healthy organism under steady-state conditions CpG DNA/TLR9 activation favours the induction of regulatory mechanisms in chronic intestinal inflammation CpG/TLR9 interaction contributes to the perpetuation of chronic intestinal inflammation. The identification of possible regulators of TLR9 activation (e.g. GSK3-𝛽) which have the potential to decide whether TLR activation results in a more tolerizing or proinflammatory response may help to explain these dichotomic effects. These regulators are interesting targets for therapeutic approaches.