STAT3 and inflammatory bowel disease: Notably, in gastrointestinal pathologies, macrophage polarization exhibits dual regulatory characteristics—M1 polarization exacerbates mucosal damage via NF-κB/STAT3 signaling in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (19), whereas tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) M2 polarization promotes angiogenesis and immune evasion through VEGF/PD-L1 axis in gastric and colorectal cancer microenvironments (20, 21).