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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 28, 2025; 31(44): 109440
Published online Nov 28, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i44.109440
Published online Nov 28, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i44.109440
Neuroimmune interactions in inflammatory bowel disease: Role of intestinal macrophages and the cholinergic pathway
Lie Zheng, Sheng-Lei Duan, Department of Gastroenterology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an 710003, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Zheng L and Duan SL contributed to the study conception and design and wrote the manuscript; Zheng L and Duan SL contributed to the literature search, drafted the manuscript, and provided approval of the final version to be published.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82574996; Xi’an Science and Technology Plan Project, No. 23YXYJ0162; Shaanxi Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Research and Innovation Talent Plan Project, No. TZKN-CXRC-16; Project of Shaanxi Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. SZY-KJCYC-2025-JC-010; Shaanxi Province Key Research and Development Plan Project-Social Development Field, No. 2025SF-YBXM-498; The "Nursery Cultivation Plan" Project of Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Chinese Medicine and Shaanxi Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the Year 2025, No. 2025-04; and the Fifth Batch of Outstanding Clinical Talents in Traditional Chinese Medicine Project of Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi Traditional Chinese Medicine Letter[2025], No. 6.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sheng-Lei Duan, Department of Gastroenterology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 4 Xihuamen Street, Lianhu District, Xi’an 710003, Shaanxi Province, China. 281930369@qq.com
Received: May 20, 2025
Revised: August 7, 2025
Accepted: October 20, 2025
Published online: November 28, 2025
Processing time: 201 Days and 15.6 Hours
Revised: August 7, 2025
Accepted: October 20, 2025
Published online: November 28, 2025
Processing time: 201 Days and 15.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Macrophages (Mφs) are a special type of phagocytes that play a crucial role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and movement. In the intestinal tract, Mφ is classified into different subgroups based on its position in the parietal layer and is closely related to the microenvironment. The current research focus is on developing non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) technology to provide a safer and more tolerable treatment option for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although preliminary data suggest that percutaneous VNS treatment for IBD may be effective, further research is needed to better prove the evidence of VNS treatment for chronic inflammatory diseases.