GASTRIC GOLD'S BLOG

Study Shows Food-Borne Infections Are Linked to Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Salmonella or campylobacter food poisoning triples the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) -- for at least 15 years.

IBD typically refers to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It's not clear exactly what causes IBD. Genetics, environment, diet, abnormal blood vessels, infections, immune-system overreaction, and psychological factors all have been blamed.

To see whether infections play a role, Henrik Nielsen, MD, of Aalborg Hospital in Denmark took advantage of his nation's system of tracking citizen's health records.

The system allowed Nielsen and colleagues to look at whether people who've been treated for certain infections are at higher risk of developing IBD.

The researchers looked at two kinds of food poisoning: salmonella and campylobacter. They identified 13,149 people treated for either infection and compared their health records to those of people who never suffered these infections.

People who had one or the other kind of food-borne infection had a 1.2% risk of getting IBD over the next 15 years. Those who never had either infection had only a 0.5% risk of IBD. Statistical analysis showed that the food-borne infections tripled IBD risk for at least the next 15 years.

"If we can reduce and prevent the spread of food bacteria and infections, we may reduce or even largely eliminate IBD in the long term," Nielsen says in a news release.

Nielsen reported the findings in a presentation to this week's Digestive Disease Week (DDW), held May 30 to June 4 in Chicago. DDW is an annual conference sponsored by the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Association for the study of Liver Diseases, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.

Labels: Inflamatory Bowel Disorders

Scientists at The University of Nottingham are investigating whether stem cell markers could have a role to play in speeding up wound healing in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The study could eventually lead to the development of new drugs which use natural molecules to spark the recovery of patients suffering from ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, reducing their risk of associated complications such as scarring, bowel obstructions and tumour growth.

Funded with a £118,500 grant from the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease (NACC), the two-year project is being led by Professor Mohammad Ilyas in the University's Division of Pathology.

He said: "The study will focus on the molecule CD24 which is a stem cell marker and which plays a key role in cell proliferation and the migration of healthy cells to a damaged area to restore normal tissue.

"CD24 is a small molecule attached to the cell membrane which has been recently reported as a marker of stem cells in the colon. It occurred to us that CD24 might have a role to play in IBD and during further studies we found that it was indeed present in sections of diseased bowel."

IBD affects around one in 400 people in the UK. Common symptoms include inflammation and ulceration of the intestine and colon, pain, severe diarrhoea, tiredness and weight loss. The cause of the disease is yet to be definitively identified, although scientists believe it could be due to a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Currently, there is no cure and patients manage their condition with a mixture of lifestyle changes, anti-inflammatory drugs and, in severe cases, surgery.

Professor Ilyas added: "The power of the gut to heal the damage caused by acute episodes of inflammation is remarkable and frequently the gut lining reverts to normal. Anti-inflammatory drugs help this process along and allow the wound healing to begin earlier than it would naturally.

"In the future, it may be possible to use a variety of therapies (possibly including gene therapy) to manipulate the expression of the CD24 molecules on cells to promote even more rapid healing. This may mean less scarring, bowel obstruction and fistulation and less chance of developing tumours resulting from persistent inflammation. As a result of this, it may also reduce the chance of needing surgery further down the line."

In the early stages of the project, the pathologists will be using cell lines in the lab to study CD24 at a cellular and molecular level to discover the mechanisms by which it operates and encourages cell migration and other associated molecules that are co-expressed.

They will then examine diseased IBD tissue to establish whether what they have observed in the lab is occurring in reality.

It is hoped the findings will lead to further clinical work to look at the possible benefits of CD24 in allowing IBD patients to more effectively manage their disease.

The CEO of NACC, Richard Driscoll, explains, "Since 1984, NACC members have raised over £4.5 million and more than 100 research awards have been made to hospitals and universities throughout the United Kingdom. This year our Medical Research Committee selected three studies to receive NACC research awards which we hope will contribute to finding improved treatments and ultimately a cure for IBD. We welcome Professor Ilyas' work on CD24 in seeking a better understanding of the gut healing process and how it may be enhanced in inflammatory bowel disease."

Source:
Professor Mohammad Ilyas
University of Nottingham

Labels: IBD, IBS, Inflamatory Bowel Disorders, Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Bacteria naturally present in the human gut could produce substances that help to protect against colon cancer and provide therapy for inflammatory bowel disease. In a paper published in the journal Microbiology, researchers from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health and from the MTT Agrifood Research Institute in Finland report initial studies showing that bacteria in the human gut convert linoleic acid, a naturally-occurring fat in the diet, into a form called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is absorbed by the gut wall.

There are different types of CLA and not all of them have beneficial effects. The "good" form of CLA is present in dairy foods such as milk and cheese," said Dr John Wallace of the Rowett Research Institute, "but eating lots of dairy foods won't necessarily help our gut health as most of the fats are digested in the small intestine before they get to the large intestine, where most of our gut bacteria are found." The results of these latest studies showed that several different forms of CLA are produced by gut bacteria. Fortunately, most was of the "good" kind, but Dr Wallace stressed that more extensive studies are needed. One subject produced small amounts of a CLA whose beneficial or otherwise effects are much less clear.

The implications are that, if small quantities of dietary linoleic acid can be delivered to the large intestine, the effects on gut health will be generally beneficial in most people. He added, "The results are of special interest for individuals using anti-obesity treatments that prevent the small intestine from absorbing fats. This means that those fats - including linoleic acid - will pass into the large intestine and the gut bacteria will produce CLA. It has to be the correct CLA, so it is important to understand how individuals produce different CLA. This must depend on which types of bacteria are present."

Labels: Cancer, IBD, Inflamatory Bowel Disorders, Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Scientists have uncovered vital clues about how to treat serious bowel disorders by studying the behaviour of cells in the colon.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh believe a chemical messenger that is essential for developing a baby's gut in the womb could hold the key to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a condition which affects 1 in 250 people in the UK.

The team studied a chain of chemical reactions inside colon cells, called the Hedgehog signalling pathway, which controls the way it behaves and communicates with other cells.

The researchers found that some patients with IBD inherit a defective copy of one of the important links in this chain, a gene called GLI1. This defective GLI1 is only half as active as normal. Additionally, the Hedgehog pathway itself signals at lower levels than normal when the large bowel is inflamed.

The results suggest that the GLI1 protein may calm inflammation within the healthy colon, and that this process appears to go wrong in IBD patients, causing their gut to become inflamed.

The researchers now hope to test whether strengthening this weakened protein will help to prevent or treat inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Dr Charlie Lees from the University's Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, who led the study, said: "Everybody has billions of bacteria in the gut, the vast majority of which do us no harm. Our body's natural immune responses identify and eliminate harmful bacteria, whilst living in harmony with the healthy bacteria. But in people with inflammatory bowel disease, that response goes wrong and an over-active immune response against these healthy bacteria leads to chronic inflammation in the gut.

"It now seems that the Hedgehog signalling pathway, and specifically the GLI1 protein, is crucial to that response. We think it provides an important signal to certain types of immune cells in the gut wall, instructing them to adopt an anti-inflammatory state. If we can find ways to bolster these responses in people with IBD, we may be able to help prevent the painful attacks which are so devastating to patients."

Labels: IBD, Inflamatory Bowel Disorders

MONDAY, April 28 (HealthDay News) — The inflammatory bowel diseases ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease appear to share several genetic variants and risk factors, two new British studies suggest.

Though similar in many ways, the two diseases are distinct, and scientists have been trying to pinpoint the underlying relationship between them to improve their understanding of and treatment for both. The latest findings, expected to be published online in the April 27 issue of Nature Genetics, may be a significant step forward.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease affect one in 250 individuals of Northern European descent. Ulcerative colitis is a common inflammatory bowel disease, while Crohn's disease is a related, but chronic disorder of the intestine.

In the first study, researchers identified ECM1, a gene variant that encodes a protein secreted by cells to activate a key immune regulator as tied to the risk of colitis. They also found that five genes previously linked to the probability of developing Crohn's disease are also common to ulcerative colitis, while three others are not.

In the second study, several of 50 previously reported susceptibility loci for Crohn's disease were deemed risk variants for both diseases. Three others were found to be specific to Crohn's disease and three specific to ulcerative colitis.

Labels: Crohn's disease, IBS, Inflamatory Bowel Disorders, Ulcerative

Bland J
Journal of Alterative Medicine, 1985

Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., formerly of the Linus Pauling Institute, reported using a concentrate of Aloe vera to treat gastrointestinal problems. The objectives of Dr. Bland’s study were “to evaluate the effect of oral Aloe vera juice supplementation of gastric pH, stool specific gravity, protein digestion/absorption, and stool microbiology” and found that it could be used in “the treatment of inflammatory bowel disorders.”

In his patient application studies of ten healthy subjects (five women and five men), Dr. Bland first found that the Aloe vera juice provided caused his subjects no covert or overt adverse effects and was in general “well tolerated” by all ten people in the study group. In his study of five women and five men, Dr. Bland was careful to note that: “...with the taking of two-ounce increments [of the Aloe vera juice] three times daily for seven days no patient among the... (five men, five women) complained of diarrhea... four of the subjects reported improved bowel regularity with greater gastrointestinal comfort after eating... three indicated an enhancement of energy and a greater sense of well being...”

Additionally, he reported that: “The function of Aloe vera juice in promoting proper gastrointestinal function based upon the information from this preliminary study may be to regulate gastrointestinal pH while improving gastrointestinal motility, increasing stool specific gravity and reducing the populations of certain fecal micro-organisms, including yeast [Candida albicans]. This could have significant advantages to some individuals by promoting proper dietary protein digestion and absorption and reducing bowel putrefactive processes in the colon.”

Labels: Aloe vera, Aloe Vera Juice, diarrhea, Gastrointestinal, IBS, Inflamatory Bowel Disorders