Hemorrhagic rectocolitis (UC) and Cohn's disease (CD), the two main forms of chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), result from an inappropriate immune response to the intestinal flora in a genetically predisposed individual in the presence of environmental factors. IBD is a complex pathology associated with chronic inflammation of the intestine, in which helper T lymphocytes (THL) appear to be heavily involved. Currently, the Th17 subpopulation is described as the main player in local inflammation via pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL 17, 21 and 22). IL-17A and IL-17F are the 2 main effector cytokines, sharing over 50% homology in terms of amino acid sequence. The corresponding genes are located close to each other on the short arm of chromosome 6 (6p12). We studied the genetic polymorphism of 2 genes involved in the Th17 pathway: IL-17A (rs3748067) and IL-17F (rs763780) in a group of Tunisian IBD patients compared with a control group.
