Inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term that describes disorders involving long-standing (chronic) inflammation of tissues in your digestive tract. Types of IBD include:
Ulcerative colitis.
This condition involves inflammation and sores (ulcers) along the lining of your large intestine (colon) and rectum.
Crohn's disease.
This type of IBD is characterized by inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, which often can involve the deeper layers of the digestive tract.
Crohn's disease most commonly affects the small intestine.
However, it can also affect the large intestine and uncommonly, the upper gastrointestinal tract.
Both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease usually are characterized by diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss
Causes
Researchers at Francis Crick Institute, in collaboration with UCL and Imperial College London published their findings in journal Nature about causes of IBD.
Scientists at the Crick journeyed into a ‘gene desert’ — an area of DNA that doesn’t code for proteins — which has previously been linked to IBD and several other autoimmune diseases.
They found that this gene desert contains an ‘enhancer’, a section of DNA that is like a volume dial for nearby genes, able to crank up the amount of proteins they make.
The team discovered that this particular enhancer was only active in macrophages, a type of immune cell known to be important in IBD, and boosted a gene called ETS2, with higher levels correlating with a higher risk of disease.
Using genetic editing, the scientists showed that ETS2 was essential for almost all inflammatory functions in macrophages, including several that directly contribute to tissue damage in IBD.
The team also discovered that many other genes previously linked to IBD are part of the ETS2 pathway, providing further evidence that it is a major cause of IBD.
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