Novel biomarkers for intestinal fibrosis and cell therapies for perianal fistulas in Crohn’s disease

This thesis identifies new markers for assessing inflammation and scarring in Crohn’s disease, an incurable inflammatory condition of the bowel. This was performed using a technique called biospectroscopy, which gathers biochemical information about the intestinal tissue. This thesis also develops a new stem cell treatment for perianal fistulas in Crohn’s disease using a stem-like cell from the placenta termed human amnion epithelial cells. This thesis includes the first human study using these cells in Crohn’s disease, which were injected into patients and showed that the treatment was safe and well tolerated, with promising results for healing perianal fistulas.