Found the Reason for Lower Abdominal Pain on Days with Severe Fine Dust Pollution

Life Institute Identifies Mechanism Worsening Inflammatory Bowel Disease
"Potassium Signal Disruption and Protein Absorption Interference"

On days with high fine dust levels, the number of patients with enteritis experiencing mild lower abdominal pain also increases. A domestic research team confirmed that when fine dust is absorbed into the human body through the respiratory system, it disrupts the potassium signaling pathway in the intestines, hindering protein breakdown and absorption, thereby worsening inflammatory bowel disease. This finding is expected to aid future drug development.

On the 12th, when a fine dust warning was issued across Seoul, the city center viewed from Namsan in Seoul was shrouded in fine dust accompanied by yellow dust. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced on the 15th that Dr. Son Mi-young's stem cell research team successfully elucidated the mechanism of small intestine function decline in patients with inflammatory bowel disease exposed to fine dust (PM 10) using intestinal organoids.

Fine dust is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen and causes various diseases including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and reproductive abnormalities. Fine dust is mainly inhaled through the respiratory tract but can also enter the body through food or drinking water. Although fine dust ingested through food is diluted by saliva and digestive fluids, some of the fine dust is absorbed through the stomach or intestinal mucosa, enters the bloodstream, spreads throughout the body, and causes gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal microbiome imbalance, according to research findings.

While fine dust, which is easily encountered in daily life, is known to be more harmful to patients with underlying diseases, research on diseases related to fine dust has focused on conditions such as asthma and atopy. There is almost no research on the harmful effects of fine dust on patients with inflammatory bowel disease, whose prevalence is rapidly increasing. Most existing studies on the harmful effects of fine dust in the intestines use cancer cell lines, which are not normal cells and have limitations in similarity to the human body in terms of cellular diversity and functionality.

The research team conducted a study on the effects of fine dust in inflammatory bowel disease using their proprietary technology of human pluripotent stem cell-derived 2D intestinal epithelial cells and 3D organoids. They confirmed that in inflammatory bowel disease models exposed to fine dust, not only is the calcium signaling pathway?one of the important intracellular signaling molecules?disrupted, but protein breakdown and absorption functions are also impaired, worsening the disease.

Dr. Son said, “This research outcome newly reveals the mechanism of intestinal function decline caused by fine dust in patients with underlying inflammatory bowel disease,” adding, “It is expected to be utilized as a new target for treating intestinal function decline caused by environmental harmful factors in patients with underlying diseases.”

This research was published online on June 26 in the immunology journal Frontiers in Immunology (IF 8.787) (paper title: Particulate matter 10 exposure affects intestinal functionality in both inflamed 2D intestinal epithelial cell and 3D intestinal organoid models).