In response to gut inflammation, such as that caused by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the vascular barrier in the brain choroid plexus closes, locking down access to the brain, according to a new study.
While this gut-brain vascular axis deregulation likely protects the brain from inflammation, the findings suggest it may also result in the various cognitive and psychiatric symptoms that are occasionally associated with IBD.
While often linked to intestinal inflammation, IBD can also cause a wide variety of symptoms in other organs outside the gut – as much as 40% of patients with IBD also present with psychiatric symptoms like anxiety or depression.
