Chronic inflammatory diseases of the pancreas are roughly divided into "autoimmune pancreatitis" and "chronic pancreatitis".Autoimmune pancreatitis is caused by the immune system erroneously attacking one's pancreatic tissue, and is often accompanied by various cancers including pancreatic cancer.Chronic pancreatitis is a disease in which inflammation of the pancreas persists due to excessive drinking and the function of the pancreas is lost as it progresses, and it is also known that pancreatic cancer is likely to develop.However, the onset mechanism of each of these has not been elucidated, and there is no radical cure.

　The research group found that overproduction of two cytokines (proteins secreted by cells), "type I IFN" and "IL-2", is commonly involved in the development of these two different diseases.On the other hand, the cells that produce "Type I IFN" and "IL-33" are different, and in autoimmune pancreatitis, plasmacytoid dendritic cells and in chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells are "Type I IFN". It turned out to produce "IL-2".In other words, autoimmune pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis are common in that the immune abnormality of "overproduction of type I IFN and IL-33" causes disease, but plasmacytoid dendritic cells are type I IFN and IL. It was revealed that the production of -33 leads to the development of autoimmune pancreatitis, and the production of type I IFN and IL-33 by pancreatic adenocarcinoma leads to the development of chronic pancreatitis.

　This result, which elucidated the pathogenic mechanism of chronic inflammation of the pancreas, which was hardly understood until now, is expected to develop a new treatment method for chronic inflammatory diseases of the pancreas and a new prevention method for pancreatic cancer in the future. ..

Paper information:[Trends in Immunology] Mechanical Insights into Autoimmune Pancreatitis and IgG4-Related Disease