Stopping the pain:
Drs. Andrew Stadnyk and Tony Otley pursue effective treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) afflicts more than 170,000 Canadians – and the latest statistics show Nova Scotia has the highest rates in the country. Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis are the two most common forms. Both can have devastating impacts on quality of life. That’s why two Dalhousie faculty members based at the IWK Health Centre have joined forces to find a cure for this debilitating chronic disease.
Dalhousie scientist Dr. Andrew Stadnyk is working with pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Tony Otley to trace the sequence of events that leads to intestinal inflammation in IBD. Their goal: to pinpoint a step that can be blocked by drugs to stop the disease process.
The researchers are defining the mechanisms that help white blood cells cross from the bloodstream into the intestine. “White blood cells are a critical part of the inflammatory response,” explains Dr. Otley. “Following an initial injury to the intestine, perhaps from food or drink, the cells that line the intestine recruit white blood cells to the area. The white bloods cells damage the intestine as they penetrate the inner layer and trigger inflammation.”
The researchers are now studying the epithelial cells that line the intestinal tract, to see how these cells behave differently in IBD. “It appears that the epithelial cells determine if there will be an inflammatory response to an initial injury,” says Dr. Stadnyk. “I want to learn what prompts the epithelial cells to recruit white blood cells to the intestine.”
This work also has implications in bowel cancer. People with chronic IBD are ten times more likely than the general population to develop bowel cancer, because, as Dr. Stadnyk explains, “In chronic IBD, epithelial cells produce molecules that interfere with normal cell death and may therefore promote the development of cancer.”
Drs. Stadnyk and Otley have recently expanded their research to include studies of the role of intestinal bacteria in the development of IBD.