Researchers Identify Bacteria Responsible for Key Crohn’s Complication | Health News

By Robert Preidt, HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay)
TUESDAY, Oct. 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Leaking bacteria from the intestine triggers “creeping fat” that often occurs in people with Crohn’s disease, according to a new study.
Creeping fat is abdominal fat that wraps around the intestines of patients with this type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It was unknown what triggered the fat to do this.
“Creeping fat is often a landmark for surgeons performing resections on an IBD patient’s bowels because they know when they see it, that’s likely where the lesions are located,” said study author Suzanne Devkota, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
“But we don’t know whether the presence of the fat is making the disease worse or trying to protect the intestines from something,” she added in a hospital news release.
Devkota’s team analyzed small intestine and fat tissue samples from 11 Crohn’s