The present disclosure relates to antibodies including human antibodies and antigen-binding portions thereof that specifically bind to MAdCAM, preferably human MAdCAM and that function to inhibit MAdCAM. The disclosure also relates to human anti-MAdCAM antibodies and antigen-binding portions thereof. The disclosure also relates to antibodies that are chimeric, bispecific, derivatized, single chain antibodies or portions of fusion proteins. The disclosure also relates to isolated heavy and light chain immunoglobulins derived from human anti-MAdCAM antibodies and nucleic acid molecules encoding such immunoglobulins. The present disclosure also relates to methods of making human anti-MAdCAM antibodies, compositions comprising these antibodies and methods of using the antibodies and compositions for diagnosis and treatment. The disclosure also provides gene therapy methods using nucleic acid molecules encoding the heavy and/or light immunoglobulin molecules that comprise the human anti-MAdCAM antibodies. The disclosure also relates to transgenic animals or plants comprising nucleic acid molecules of the disclosure.
