Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a general term for a group of non-specific, chronic inflammatory disorders of the digestive tract, of unknown etiology. IBD may be divided in two major categories: Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, both characterized by a tendency towards frequent acute relapses leading to devastating chronic destruction of the intestinal mucosal barrier function. Whereas Crohn's disease can affect the whole digestive tract, ulcerative colitis is characterized by colonic involvement only. Surgical intervention is frequently required in both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Therapeutic intervention to date predominantly is based on reduction of induced local mucosal- or systemic inflammation by the use of 5-ASA, corticosteroids, cyclosporine, or TNFα antibodies.