Visit the Microscopic Colitis Foundation Website
One of the layers of the GI tract is called the basement membrane which basically is made up from a protein called Agrin. Agrin makes up a barrier layer that can be found throughout the body. The Agrin protein is also a used as a building block throughtout various of the bodies structures.
The reason I am bringing this up for discussion here, is that as many of you know I have Myasthenia Gravis, basically a autoimmune form of muscular dystrophy as opposed to a genetic form. I also have MC (CC) and pathology reports from 11 biopsies in the GI tract were positive for MC (CC). One pathologist discussed the inflamation and damge that was noted in the basement membrane which is made up of this Agrin protein.
Myasthenia causes muscular weakness throughout the body as the antibodies attack the point where the individual nerves connect to our muscles. So far they have identified 4 antibodies that can cause the Myasthenia symptoms, including one that attacks the Agrin protein that the body also uses as a buiding block to make this connection to our muscles.
This newly discovered antibody that attacks the Agrin results in weakness, inflammation and porosity of this membrane in our GI tracts. At first glance this sounded like it could be a factor in MC with the inflammation and potential porosity contributing to leaky gut type of behavior. You can think of this Agrin layer as something like a very thin layer of the cling film we wrap our leftovers in, except the body uses it as a protective barrier where needed and its much thinner
As someone with both MC & MG, this makes me ask the question does the Agrin and any potential damage from the antibodies contribute to both conditions. I know over the last 2 years that whenever the MG was flaring up, so was the MC. The other observation I have made is that on the support group website I belong to there is a LOT of GI complaints and a fair amount of discussion regaring avoiding gluten & soy etc.
I know on this site we have active research types and wonder if you have run across any mentions of the basement membrane in the GI tract or any specific proteins.
I did run across several research articles on PubMed and other sites supporting this and will update this post later with those links describing the research, they are on my home computer....almost time to go home.
