Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are becoming more common across Western countries. In Denmark, for instance, the number of people affected by these chronic conditions has doubled over the last two decades.
Today, around 50,000 people in Denmark live with IBD. While many are diagnosed during early adulthood, some cases emerge in childhood, especially when symptoms like weight loss, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bleeding appear.
Now, scientists at the Center for Molecular Prediction of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (PREDICT) at Aalborg University have made an important discovery.
Their research, published in Gastroenterology, shows that children diagnosed with IBD before the age of six already have biological signs of the disease at birth.
This groundbreaking finding could help doctors understand how the disease develops long before any symptoms become noticeable.
Ph.D. student Jonas Julius Rudbæk from PREDICT explains that comparing blood samples from newborns who later develop IBD with those who don’t has given researchers new insights.
“Young children often cannot describe their pain, making it hard to diagnose IBD early. But if we can detect biological changes in newborns, we may one day be able to screen for the disease and even find ways to prevent it before it starts,” he says.
However, Rudbæk points out that this research is still in its early stages. “This is the first time such a connection has been shown anywhere in the world, so it’s a major step forward. But we need to dig deeper to understand exactly what is happening in these children’s bodies.”
A Particularly Affected Group
IBD is caused by an overactive immune system, which leads to chronic inflammation in the intestines. This inflammation triggers ongoing symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach pain, and fatigue, severely affecting a person’s quality of life.
Recent studies have found that certain inflammatory markers can show up in blood samples as early as ten years before a person is diagnosed with IBD. This suggests that the disease may begin developing much earlier than previously thought.
However, this finding is limited by the availability of blood samples taken before an official diagnosis is made, which may be why scientists have only been able to trace it back by a decade.
In the new study, researchers found that only children diagnosed with IBD before the age of six had these biological markers in their blood at birth. In contrast, children diagnosed later in childhood did not show such early signs.
“We see these early indicators of IBD only in very young children,” explains Rudbæk. “It suggests that we are looking at a particularly vulnerable group, and this makes it crucial to explore potential prevention methods for these children.”
Health Data Offers Hope for Future Prevention
Professor Tine Jess, director of the PREDICT center, emphasizes the value of Denmark’s extensive health records and biobank resources. These tools provide detailed data that allows scientists to trace the early signs of diseases, offering a better understanding of how conditions like IBD develop.
“Our study is a good example of how Denmark’s health data can help uncover the origins of diseases,” says Professor Jess. “In the future, the knowledge we gain from these resources will help us not only prevent chronic conditions like IBD in Denmark but also around the world.”
Although the research is still in its early stages, this discovery offers hope that, one day, we may be able to detect and possibly even prevent IBD in children before it starts affecting their lives. For now, the focus will be on further understanding these early biological changes and exploring ways to turn this knowledge into practical treatments.
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For more information about gut health, please see recent studies about Navigating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with diet and results showing that Mycoprotein in diet may reduce risk of bowel cancer and improve gut health.
The research findings can be found in Gastroenterology.
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