Coffee Reduces Risk of Pancreatitis

Filed in archive Food and Agriculture , Other Biotechnology News on March 15, 2006

Pancreatitis is an inflammatory process in which pancreatic enzymes autodigest the gland, causing severe abdominal pain. This condition is often triggered by excessive alcohol consumption.

University of Liverpool scientists found that coffee can reduce the risk of alcohol-induced pancreatitis. They have discovered that caffeine can partially close special channels within cells, reducing to some extent the damaging effects of alcohol products on the pancreas.

Professor Ole Petersen and Professor Robert Sutton, from the University's Physiological Laboratory and Division of Surgery, have found that cells in the pancreas can be damaged by products of alcohol and fat formed in the pancreas when oxygen levels in the organ are low. Under these conditions, excessive amounts of calcium are released from stores within the cells of the pancreas. Special organelles, called mitochondria, also become damaged and cannot produce the energiser that normally allows calcium to be pumped out of the cells. The excess calcium then activates protein breakdown, destroying the cells in the pancreas.

There is no available pharmacological treatment for pancreatitis available at present. However, this research finding can lead to search for specific chemical agents that target the channels causing the excessive liberation of calcium ions inside the cells, the origin of the problem.

Source: University of Liverpool Newsroom