STAT3 and inflammatory bowel disease: Using STAT3 Δβ/Δβ transgenic mice, which express only the STAT3 α isoform, generated in Valeria Poli’s lab [100] we determined that manifestations of IBD, such as mortality, weight-loss, rectal and/or colonic bleeding, diarrhea, and colon shortening, were exacerbated in the transgenic mice versus cage-control WT mice [45,46]).