Possible trigger of chronic inflammatory bowel disease identified

As the cause of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis is not yet known, treatment for sufferers is currently aimed at alleviating the often agonising symptoms. The discovery by a MedUni Vienna research team that the trigger for IBD could be found on the surface of intestinal epithelial cells provides a new potential starting point for the development of therapeutic measures. The results of the study were recently published in the scientific journal "EMBO Reports". In their experiments, the research group led by Bernadette Mödl and Robert Eferl from MedUni Vienna's Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) was able to show for the first time that certain changes in the brush border of intestinal epithelial cells could be associated with the development of IBD. The brush border consists of dense, finger-shaped protrusions (microvilli) on the surface of the intestinal epithelial cells, the cells of the outermost layer of the intestine. The microvilli are connected to each other by a protein complex (intermicrovillar adhesion complex = IMAC), which is responsible for the organised structure of the brush border. Boosting the production of certain proteins.