A Transmissible Agent in Crohn's Disease? New Pursuit of an Old Concept

The enigmatic nature of Crohn's disease periodically elicits plaintive cries for new concepts.1 Students of inflammatory bowel disease, struggling with this group of disorders of unknown causes, clutch at methods that appear to have worked for others. Witness, for example, the current explosion of research directed at possible immunologic mechanisms. Some recent evidence suggests, however, that hope for understanding Crohn's disease may reside in the renewed pursuit of an old concept: that Crohn's disease is in fact an infectious disease.Historically, the concept of Crohn's disease — before it was Crohn's disease — was that the ileal inflammation, granulomatosis, fistulization, . . .