A novel player in intestinal inflammation and motility

Disturbances of intestinal motility affect a large proportion of the population worldwide with more than 20% of the European population suffering from chronic constipation, the causes of which are often unknown. Intestinal motility is impaired in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, and alterations to intestinal motility are often associated with indications of inflammation. Although chronic gastrointestinal dysmotility syndromes are a common worldwide health problem, underlying causes are poorly understood. Consequently, common treatment options are restricted to diet and lifestyle changes or use of osmotic laxatives, which frequently produce unsatisfactory results, prompting the need to gain better mechanistic insight into the development of gastrointestinal dysmotility. In this project proposal, we will characterize a novel mouse model of constipation that we have generated, and use this model to study the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms as well as to investigate potential therapeutic approaches.