We found that, besides downregulating IRAK1 and TRAF6, miR-146a represses many other potential direct targets, such as Il1a, Il11, Il5ra, Il1r2, Cxcl13, Cxcl5, Osm, Arg1, Igfbp5, and Vsig4. Thus, miR-146a directly targets a number of critical immune response genes to systematically repress the majority of IBD genes induced by the toxic environment factor DSS. Here, CXCL13 is linked to inflammatory bowel disease.