inflammatory bowel disease tagged posts

Diet rich in sugar, fat damages immune cells in digestive tracts of mice. Eating a Western diet impairs the immune system in the gut in ways that could increase risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic.

The study, in mice and peop...

Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago demonstrated that a nanotherapy reduces intestinal inflammation and shrinks lesions in a rodent model of severe Crohn’s disease. This approach could become an alternative to biologic antibody therapies that carry many side effects, including increased risk of certain cancers. It might also prevent the need for surgery in the future. Findings were published in the journal Advanced Therapeutics.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, most often in the small intestine...

Men with inflammatory bowel disease have 4 to 5 times higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, reports a 20-year study from Northwestern Medicine. This is the first report to show men with inflammatory bowel disease have higher than average PSA (prostate-specific antigen) values, and this group also has a significantly higher risk of potentially dangerous prostate cancer.

About 1 million men have inflammatory bowel disease in the U.S. Inflammatory bowel disease is a common chronic condition that includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. “These patients may need to be screened more carefully than a man without inflammatory bowel disease,” said lead study author Dr...

High magnification micrograph of Crohn’s disease. Biopsy of esophagus. H&E stain. Credit: Nephron/Wikipedia

A single protein from a worm parasite may one day offer new therapeutic options for treating inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis, that avoid the potentially serious side effects of current immunosuppressant medications. The study, published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates the discovery of a distinct new worm protein which mimics a cytokine found in humans, known as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β). The newly-discovered protein switches off inflammation by inducing “regulatory T cells”, the body’s own means of dampening excessive reactivity.

The “Hygiene Hypothesis” suggests that some bugs and parasites may protect you from an overly-rea...