Over a million people in the United States have some form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD. It can be caused by intestinal bacteria, environment or genetics. One thing is for sure, the lining of the intestines don’t work correctly because the cells have been disturbed by one of these things. A common finding in Crohn’s and IBD is that a molecule called TNF is elevated, and starts the inflammation process. Researchers still don’t know what signals the TNF to go up, but maybe they can turn it off with another molecule.

Zebrafish helped researchers at Duke University look at a molecule called uhrf1 that helps to turn off TNF and by doing that, it lessens the inflammation. When there was no uhrf1, TNF went up. What surprised them was where the TNF was coming from. It is expected to be manufactured by the immune cells, but it was also being manufactured by the epithelial cells—the cells that line the intestine!!

This information can be very helpful in developing new treatments for those who suffer from Crohn’s Disease and other Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

Read more at www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2015/02/researchers-discover-molecular-trigger-ibd?et_cid=4419669&et_rid=748938987&location=top

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