Grant: Fellowship - Priority Announcement - Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abdominal pain is a major cause of distress in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Previous research has demonstrated that acute IBD flares are associated with increased abdominal pain, while patients with long-term IBD have a much higher pain threshold, suggesting a balance between factors that signal increased pain vs. dampen pain sensation. In both animal models of IBD as well as from tissues of patients with chronic ulcerative colitis, there is early evidence that endogenous opioids, the body's own class of morphine-like substances, are released from inflammatory cells to dampen pain sensation to spinal cord neurons which supply the gut. Stress hormones may disrupt the pain-relieving effects of endogenous opioids. The goal of our research is to study the interaction between endogenous opioids and stress on spinal cord neurons which supply the gut and sense pain. We will examine this in both an animal model of IBD and in colonic tissues from patients with IBD flares and chronic disease. Our research may have a broad impact on the health of patients suffering from IBD as it will give us greater understanding into how abdominal pain is sensed and the role of stress in pain sensation. This may in turn lead to new medications for pain control which will apply not only to patients with IBD, but also to patients suffering with irritable bowel syndrome.