An international team has discovered novel properties of the protein Gasdermin B that promotes repair of cells lining the gastrointestinal tract in people with chronic inflammatory disorders like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

The new findings, recently published in the journal, Cell, are significant because the impact of Gasdermin B (GSDMB) on healing epithelium — a type of body tissue that lines the organs that have direct contact with the external environment — will play a key role in research on wound formation and designing novel therapeutics to enhance wound repair, said Theresa Pizarro, lead study author and the Louis Pillemer Professor of Experimental Pathology at the School of Medicine. In addition to medical school colleagues on campus, researchers included scientists from Cleveland Clinic, Texas, England and Greece.

Gasdermin B

Gasdermins are a family of proteins known to cause pyroptosis — a type of cell death usually triggered by infections and inflammation that contributes to conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Within that protein family, Gasdermin B (GSDMB), unlike other gasdermin proteins, doesn’t cause pyroptosis, especially in epithelial cells, but instead contributes to keeping the gastrointestinal tract healthy — a significant discovery for the development of future therapeutic treatments.

Previous research has shown that individuals carrying genetic variations of Gasdermin B have an increased risk of developing inflammatory disorders like asthma or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

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