'Self-eating' enzymes key to organ failure, research suggests

Digestive juices normally used to break down food can turn against the body and start damaging it when people are critically unwell, research suggests.

The study undertaken in rats looks closely at why the body starts to shut down when facing overwhelming illness.

And this research could help explain why vital organs often fail during sepsis and shock, University of California researchers say.

But more work is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn, experts say.

Shock, overwhelming infections and multi-organ failure are terminal conditions that are commonly seen in intensive care.

But why the body starts to shut down in these ways, or how best to treat it when it does, are not fully understood.

Previous research has shown that the intestine plays an important role in these often lethal scenarios.

But scientists at the University of California, San Diego, say they are the first to consider how the enzymes in the gut, which normally digest our food, could play a key role in this process.

In the study the researchers infused chemicals which block digestive enzymes into the intestines of seriously ill rats.

They found these rodents were more quick to recover from shock and less likely to die than rats that did not receive this treatment.

- BBC.co.uk