Cystic Fibrosis and The Effects on the Pancreas

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Cystic Fibrosis and The Effects on the Pancreas

• By Jon Obert

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What is cystic fibrosis

• It is an genetic disease that is caused by a
  deletion of three base pairs on chromosome 7.
• This deletion causes a mutation in the cystic
  fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator
  protein (CFTR), which is responsible for
  transporting chloride into and out of cells.
• This causes it to not function properly or to be
  totally absent from the cell

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What does this do to the body?

• Since the epithelial cells do not take in
  chloride, the salt balance of the skin gets
  messed up.
• This causes all the mucus in the body to become
  extremely thick.

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The Pancreas

• The Pancreas is an organ in the body that
  secretes enzymes into the intestines to digest
  foods.
• Some of the enzymes it secretes helps digest
  fats.

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What does cystic fibrosis do to a Pancreas?

• The pancreas normally has a thin mucosal coating
  around it.
• The mutated protein that causes cystic fibrosis
  causes the mucus to become very thick.
• This blocks the pathway the enzymes take to the
  intestines so no enzymes can reach their
  destination.

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What does this Cause?

• Since no enzymes reach the intestines and these
  enzymes help digest and absorb fat along with a
  few other nutrients, Not much fat is absorbed in
  the body, and other nutrients are not absorbed
  properly.
• That is why people with cystic fibrosis are
  normally skinny, even with strong healthy diets,
  they still have trouble gaining weight.

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What happens to all the fat that is undigested?

• It is removed with the feces and can cause severe
  diarrhea and weight loss.

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Overall

• The mutation of this one protein affects so many
  different things in the body which makes cystic
  fibrosis a very difficult disease to deal with
  and life threatening.

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References

• http//www.ygyh.org/cf/cause.htm
• http//kidshealth.org/parent/medical/lungs/cf.html
  
• http//kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/heart/cy
  stic_fibrosis.html