(Press-News.org) It is likely that the protein is also highly significant for other inflammatory diseases.
The research results have been published in the American journal Gastroenterology.
Excessive alcohol intake and gall stones are known risk factors for acute pancreatitis. However, as yet no explanation has been found for what actually happens in the body in cases of acute pancreatitis.
Current research shows that calcium-sensitive proteins found in the body, for example calcineurin, promote inflammation, but it is not known exactly how.
Henrik Thorlacius and Maria Gomez at the University's Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö have investigated this in more detail. The focus is on a family of proteins linked to calcineurin, called NFAT, the role of which in acute pancreatitis has not previously been studied.
"The protein has an unexpectedly major role in the development of inflammation in the pancreas. Now there is a clear target for the development of drugs and treatments", says Henrik Thorlacius, Professor of Surgery at Lund University and a doctor at Skåne University Hospital.
In experiments on mice, the researchers found a number of links between NFAT and acute pancreatitis. NFAT, and especially the variant NFATc3, were found to regulate the activity of trypsinogen (a precursor form of the digestive enzyme trypsin), which can affect the risk of acute pancreatitis. The activation of NFATc3 was also found to encourage inflammation and tissue damage in the pancreas in various other ways.
"In our study, we saw that the aorta, spleen and lungs were also affected. The results therefore suggest that the NFAT protein plays a part in the development of inflammatory diseases on a more general level", says Henrik Thorlacius.
The findings open up new opportunities for research on treatment and drugs, both for acute pancreatitis and for other acute inflammatory diseases, such as blood poisoning and inflammatory bowel disease.
"An effective drug needs to contain a substance that stops the activation of NFATc3 without producing serious side-effects", says Professor Thorlacius.
The NFAT proteins function as transcription factors, which means that they can be bound to the body's DNA and regulate the expression of specific genes in different cells. They have so far primarily been associated with immune cells.
###
For more information
Henrik Thorlacius, Professor of Surgery at the Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Lund University and doctor at Skåne University Hospital, +46 70 34 55 150, henrik.thorlacius@med.lu.se
Maria F. Gomez, Reader in Physiology at the Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Lund University, +46 70 222 62 16, maria.gomez@med.lu.se
Publication
Article title: 'NFATc3 Regulates Trypsinogen Activation, Neutrophil Recruitment, and Tissue Damage in Acute Pancreatitis in Mice'
Published in: Gastroenterology
About acute pancreatitis
The pancreas forms various enzymes and hormones that are necessary for digestion and to keep sugar levels stable.
Pancreatitis can be either chronic or acute, and as yet no one has been able to explain the causes of the disease. High alcohol intake and gall stones are known risk factors.
Every year, one person in 1000 in Sweden is affected by pancreatitis, corresponding to around 9 000 cases. Of these, 10 percent fall seriously ill, with a risk of fatality. There are no effective drugs to treat the condition.
Immune system protein could explain pancreatitis
2012-08-31
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Danish scientists solve old blood mystery
2012-08-31
Scientists at the research centre MEMBRANES at Aarhus University, Denmark, have completed an old puzzle, which since the 60s from many sides has been regarded as impossible to complete. The challenge was to solve the structure of the protecting protein complex that forms when haemoglobin is released from red cells and becomes toxic. This toxic release of haemoglobin occurs in many diseases affecting red cell stability, e.g. malaria.
Technically, the most important finding in this report in Nature is a high-resolution three-dimensional mapping of the so-called 'haptoglobin-haemoglobin ...
Glass shape influences how quickly we drink alcohol
2012-08-31
Dr Angela Attwood and colleagues from Bristol's School of Experimental Psychology recruited 160 social drinkers aged 18-40 with no history of alcoholism to attend two experimental sessions. At one session they were asked to drink either lager or a non-alcoholic soft drink from either a straight-sided glass or a curved 'beer flute'.
The participants were almost twice as slow when drinking alcohol from the straight-sided glass compared to the curved glass. There was no difference in drinking rates from the glasses when the drink was non-alcoholic.
The researchers suggest ...
Researchers develop new, less expensive nanolithography technique
2012-08-31
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications.
"Among other things, this type of lithography can be used to manufacture chips for use in biological sensors that can identify target molecules, such as proteins or genetic material associated with specific medical conditions," says Dr. Albena Ivanisevic, co-author of a paper describing the research. Ivanisevic is an associate professor of materials science and ...
Fear and driving opportunity motivated changes in driving behavior after 9/11
2012-08-31
A catastrophic event – such as a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or market collapse – often strikes twice. There is the damage caused by the event itself, as lives are lost or left in ruin. But there is also the second act, catalyzed by our response to the catastrophic event. This second act has the potential to cause just as much damage as the first.
In the year following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there were approximately 1,600 more traffic fatalities in the United States than expected. This figure suggests the possibility that fear may have ...
Research yields two 'firsts' regarding protein crucial to human cardiac function
2012-08-31
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State University researchers led by physics doctoral student Campion Loong have achieved significant benchmarks in a study of the human cardiac protein alpha-tropomyosin, which is an essential, molecular-level component that controls the heart's contraction on every beat.
Using an imaging method called atomic force microscopy, Loong achieved two "firsts": the first direct imaging of individual alpha-tropomyosin molecules, which are very small — roughly 40 nanometers long — and the first demonstrated examples of a measure of the human cardiac ...
BUSM researchers study use of MRI in osteoarthritis
2012-08-31
(Boston) – A study conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) shows that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) detected a high prevalence of abnormalities associated with knee osteoarthritis in middle-aged and elderly patients that had no evidence of knee osteoarthritis in X-ray images.
Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD, professor of radiology at BUSM and chief of Musculoskeletal Imaging at Boston Medical Center (BMC), led this study in collaboration with researchers from Lund University in Sweden, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Klinikum Augsburg ...
BUSM researchers find potential key to halt progression, reverse damage from emphysema
2012-08-31
(Boston) – A study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has shown that a compound used in some skin creams may halt the progression of emphysema and reverse some of the damage caused by the disease. When the compound Gly-His-Lys (GHK) was applied to lung cells from patients with emphysema, normal gene activity in altered cells was restored and damaged aspects of cellular function were repaired.
The study, which is published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Medicine, also demonstrates the potential impact of using genomic technologies ...
Mobile apps for diabetes present usability issues for older adults
2012-08-31
Diabetes is prevalent among adults aged 65 and older and can lead to a number of other serious health issues. Maintaining control of blood glucose levels is one of the most important actions diabetics can take to control their illness. New technology is designed to make self-monitoring easier and more accessible than ever before, but often tech products fail to accommodate some older users. Human factors/ergonomics researchers Laura A. Whitlock and Anne Collins McLaughlin evaluated the usability issues that older adults may experience with one type of emerging technology, ...
Wayne State researchers say adolescent smoking prevention programs still critical
2012-08-31
DETROIT — While many might see the case for programs to prevent adolescent cigarette smoking as already made, a pair of Wayne State University researchers believes that due to increasingly challenging economic times, policymakers need to be reminded to continue allocating funding for such programs.
Xinguang Chen, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, and Feng Lin, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, have found a way to provide policymakers with some hard evidence.
Most adult smokers in the ...
AGU journal highlights -- 31 August 2012
2012-08-31
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently
published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical
Research - Biogeosciences (JGR-G), Journal of Geophysical Research -
Atmospheres (JGR-D), Water Resources Research (WRR), and Space Weather
(SW).
In this release:
1. Trade-offs between water for food and for curbing climate change
2. Low calcification in corals in the Great Barrier Reef
3. The Everglades still threatened by excess nutrients
4. Wetlands the primary source of Amazon Basin methane
5. Old fractures ...