Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis present distinct characteristics, one being the expansion of mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT) surrounding the inflamed intestinal tract (“creeping fat”-CF), which is typical for CD and absent in UC. To-date, creeping fat has been accepted as a mystery with very little published data, and no determination of whether this is a pro-inflammatory or protective response, or both. The current study explores whether microorganism translocation from the inflamed gut to the adjacent mesenteric adipose drives the MAT restructuring observed as CF.