ESR2 and inflammatory bowel disease: In humans, ERβ receptors are known to regulate intestinal barrier function (Looijer-van Langen et al., 2011) and could play an important role in diseases showing sex differences, such as colorectal cancer (where ERβ is more highly expressed in females than in males; Nüssler et al., 2008) and inflammatory bowel disease (Kim and Kim, 2018).