Previous studies performed at our surgical research department of the School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism (NUTRIM) were focused on these risk factors individually. We revealed the consequences of intestinal ischemia both in small and large human intestines in a unique experimental model and described the recovery mechanism of the intestine after ischemic injury. The crucial role of Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL), an important complement factor of the immune system was shown as well as the fact that small proteins present in mature enterocytes (Intestinal-Fatty Acid Binding Proteins, I-FABP) can act as adequate markers in plasma for intestinal damage13-14. Furthermore, with the use of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) knockout mice, it was shown that COX-2 is essential in the healing process of colonic anastomoses (manuscript submitted).