Cell stress inflames the gut
Monday, June 23, 2014 - 17:31
in Health & Medicine
This is a cross section of an injury in the large intestine with the intestinal epithelium shown in red. Over 3.5 million people in Europe and the US suffer from Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis – the two most common forms of IBD. Chronic bowel inflammation is caused by an overreaction of the immune system to the bacteria which naturally occur in the gut. "This overreaction can come about if, for example, the anti-stress mechanism in the cells of the intestinal mucosa does not function correctly," explains Prof. Dirk Haller of the TUM Chair of Nutrition and Immunology.