BACKGROUND

Monogenic inflammatory bowel disease (mIBD) in patients with onset after the age of 16 has been increasingly recognized, but these reports are sporadic and lack a systematic overview, leaving the clinical and genetic characteristics poorly understood. This study aimed to characterize these late-onset mIBD (LO-mIBD), using an infantile-onset population as a control.

METHODS

Data were extracted from eligible case reports, case series, and cohorts published between January 1990 and October 2023. A comprehensive search of PubMed and Web of Science was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Demographic, genetic, phenotypic, and genotypic data were collected for the comparative analysis between LO-mIBD (> 16 years) and infantile-onset mIBD (IO-mIBD, < 2 years) cases that met the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

A total of 436 IO-mIBD and 110 LO-mIBD cases were included in the analysis. Patients with LO-mIBD had significantly lower rates of parental consanguinity and a higher frequency of heterozygous mutations in autosomal dominant genes compared with IO-mIBD cases. Meanwhile, patients with LO-mIBD more commonly presented with Crohn's disease (CD)-like gastrointestinal phenotypes. They exhibited markedly higher rates of intestinal ulcers, strictures, small intestinal involvement, and granulomatous pathology but fewer instances of villous atrophy, perianal disease, oral lesions, recurrent infections, and fever compared with IO-mIBD cases. The genes most commonly implicated in LO-mIBD were SLCO2A1, GUCY2C, CTLA4, CYBB, and SLC26A3. Defects affecting intestinal epithelial function and phagocytic activity were more prominent in LO-mIBD than in IO-mIBD.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with LO-mIBD exhibited diverse intestinal phenotypes dominated by CD-like disease, with gene defects predominantly involving epithelial and phagocytic functions. Genetic counseling, genotype-phenotype mapping, and functional validation of key pathways are critical for further improving the clinical management of patients with LO-mIBD.