STAT3 and inflammatory bowel disease: Of note, the largest today GWAS meta-analysis of ulcerative colitis (UC), another form of IBD, has shown that, among the 99 confirmed IBD loci meeting genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10-8) in UC and/or CD, 28 loci shared association signals between UC and CD, with many common variants identified in the IL23 signaling pathway, specifically IL23R, JAK2, STAT3, IL12B, and PTPN2 [35].