When the stomach gets low on acid.A shortage of stomach acid can lead to cancer, possibly as a result of bacterial overgrowth bacterial overgrowth GI disease The multiplication of opportunistic bacteria in the lower GI tract, often due to antibiotic therapy. See Pseudomembranous colitis Lab medicineThe multiplication of contaminating bacteria in a specimen–eg, blood, urine, due to and chronic inflammation, a study in mice indicates. Too much stomach acid is a well-studied problem that can cause more than simple gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining. Excess acid can lead to heartburn heartburn, burning sensation beneath the breastbone, also called pyrosis. Heartburn does not indicate heart malfunction but results from nervous tension or overindulgence in food or drink. and cause chronic inflammation of the esophagus, esophageal scarring, and even cancer. Turning the tables, scientists recently found that too little stomach acid might cause its own problems, including pneumonia (SN: 10/30/04, p. 277). In the new study of low stomach acid, Juanita L. Merchant, a gastroenterologist at the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues studied 20 mice, half of which were genetically engineered to lack gastrin, the hormone that orchestrates stomach-add secretion. Six of the mice lacking gastrin developed stomach tumors at 12 months of age, but none of normal mice did, the researchers report in the March 31 Oncogene oncogene Gene that can cause cancer. It is a sequence of DNA that has been altered or mutated from its original form, the proto-oncogene (see mutation). Proto-oncogenes promote the specialization and division of normal cells. . The mice lacking gastrin also had fewer stomach-lining cells die off, which is a normal, tumor-suppressing action. In this process, the body detects runaway cell growth and sends the aberrant cells into suicide mode. The gastrin-deficient mice lacked RUNX RUNX Runt-Related Transcription Factor 3, a protein that in normal mice can activate such programmed cell death pro·grammed cell death n. See apoptosis. programmed cell death proposed system of cell death, often including poly(ADP)-ribosylation, ensures that a cell will not survive if it is so badly damaged that its recovery would harm the . Merchant hypothesizes that inflammation brought on by excess bacterial growth might suppress RUNX3 production. It's too early to draw a parallel between acid-deficient mice lacking all gastrin from birth and people who regularly take acid-blocking drugs for acid-reflux disease, Merchant says.--N.S. |
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