Diabetes Mainstay Might Defeat Colitis

摘要

Diabetes might not be the only disease that benefits from the addition of insulin, research indicates. The work, a collaboration between departments at the University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University, promises that treating chronic bowel inflammation is possible, demonstrated by injecting insulin into the rectums of test mice. The study, published recently in the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, analyzed the effect of the treatment in tests on mice with a type of ulcer-ative colitis. The cause of the bowel disorders is unknown, but they generate great discomfort, variously resulting in bloody diarrhea, anemia, stomachache, and weight loss in approximately 20,000 patients in Denmark who suffer from this affliction. "Existing treatments attack the bowel's immune system, dampening it; instead our method strengthens the bowel cells' own defense. It appears to work equally well, and it can probably be used in combination with existing treatments," says J0rgen Olsen, treatment codeveloper and professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen.