Multi-Center African-American Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study (MAAIS)

This current protocol was established as part of an NIDDK initiative to further explore
genetic factors associated with IBD. Specifically, the investigators are interested in
identifying the genetic, environment and socio-economical components that contribute to the
development of IBD in the African American population.

IBD is believed to be caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Genetic
data will be examined alongside potential environmental factors such as smoking, medications,
environmental exposures, and some dietary factors. Since IBD is known to predominantly affect
Western, industrialized areas of the world, the investigators will also inquire about
participants' socioeconomic background in hopes of identifying any previously unknown factors
in the AA population that may increase the risk of IBD. These potential environmental factors
will be important in association analyses using covariates as these factors can obscure
potential associations or interact with genetic factors and thus contribute to genetic
associations. The investigators will also obtain information as to ancestry of parents and
grandparents as to best match cases with unrelated controls of similar ancestry (e.g.,
Caribbean, recent European or recent African ancestry could cause genetic mismatch of a case
and control). At the same time, the investigators will also collect similar information
(smoking, medications, environmental exposures and dietary factors) from non-African
Americans for the purpose of making direct comparisons for these parameters between the
different racial groups to assess the contribution of non-genetic factors for susceptibility
to the development of IBD.

This study calls for recruiting AA patients and ethnically matched controls (friend or
spouse). These persons will provide us with a blood sample and with information requested on
a questionnaire asking the following: clinical course and history of their IBD or their
general health, smoking history, socioeconomic variables and specific dietary factors known
in some populations to be related to IBD etiology. Access to medical records will be used to
confirm diagnoses. The clinical characteristics of IBD obtained from medical records will be
summarized in a phenotyping form using a standardized NIDDK IBDGC Phenotyping Operations
Manual. Controls will be asked health history to identify potentially unrecognized IBD. DNA
and other biospecimens will be purified from blood. Samples and data will also be shared with
the NIDDK IBDGC for use in IBDGC research projects and will be processed and maintained at
NIDDK repositories.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. African Americans with a confirmed diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

2. African Americans without a diagnosis of IBD and without a family history of IBD for
comparison purposes

Exclusion Criteria: Patients whose IBD cannot be confirmed