miR-200b is involved in intestinal fibrosis of Crohn's disease

Intestinal fibrosis is one of the major serious complications of Crohn's disease (CD). However, there are no effective antifibrotic drugs to treat intestinal fibrosis in CD. Therefore, it is important to understand the pathogenesis of fibrosis in CD. It has been reported that members of the miR-200 family are essential in the regulation of renal fibrogenesis. In this study, we analyzed the function of miR-200a and miR-200b in intestinal fibrosis, which was induced by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) in vitro. Furthermore, we detected the expression of miR-200a and miR-200b in CD specimens, which were divided into groups of fibrosis and no-fibrosis. The results of this study showed that administration of miR-200b could partially protect intestinal epithelial cells from fibrogenesis in vitro. Furthermore, we found that miR-200b was overexpressed in the serum of the fibrosis group. The results suggest that miR-200b has potential value for diagnostic and therapeutic applications for CD patients with fibrosis complications.