Crohn's & Colitis In childhood

Establised over thirty years ago 3C's is a charity run solely by friends with a personal connection to either Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis. Every single penny raised is distributed in the pursuit to find a cure for Crohn's and new treatments for Colitis.

To date the charity has raised over £1.5 million pounds.

The charity is funding the following projects:

University College Hospital - London

Crohn’s Disease and The Mesenteric Fat Study

The aim has been to fund a research fellow to Investigate adipocytes (fat cells) looking at two areas.

• Crohn’s disease vs healthy controls
• Mesenteric adipocytes vs non gut adipocytes

The research study then looks at the response of the adipocytes to nutritional therapy by varying fat content ex vivo (in the lab) to try and achieve the following three things.

• To elucidate a mechanism of action for nutritional therapy
• To discover the optimal content and types of fatty acids to put in elemental feeds
• Better feeds may reduce the need for medicines

In order to do this, specimens have been collected from 34 patients and then the histology is looked at to see any variation in adipose tissue in different conditions. As a result of this various feed experiments ie the use of different types of artificial feeding.  3Cs has agreed to continue funding this study to enable the research fellow to continue all the analyses. Research fellow Mohammad Eddama has been employed and he is now conducting a trial of different elemental feeds and will report again very shortly.

International Pharmacy Fellowship

Under the stewardship of Professor Robert Horne 3Cs has commenced funding of the two year international fellowship to bring over to the UK a leading international pharmacist who will conducting a serious of studies in to the use of a new drug for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. The announcement of the new fellow will be made in the first quarter of 2013.

Initially based at UCLH in London the fellow will then work throughout the year with other IBD centres including St Marks Hospital and Barts Hospital. 

Independent study in Cork, Ireland

Study in to the use of ProBiotics in IBD and Bowel Transplantation

Based out of a highly accredited lab in Cork 3Cs will be funding a study in to the use of probiotics in bowel disease and post bowel transplant patients. Initial studies seem to indicate that the results look good in Ulcerative Colitis and not so good in Crohn's which is why further trials are needed. This study will also be done in collaboration with a number of hospitals in London specifically between UCH, Barts and the London, St Thomas' and St Mark's  for Crohn's disease, and there is a separate link to Spinal injuries patients in whom we have just finished a first probiotic trial in conjunction with the unit at Stoke Mandeville. 

Supporting patients and their families

Refit of patient flats

3Cs has committed funding to refit 4 flats that are used by inflammatory bowel disease and bowel transplant patients either in the lead up to surgery or post surgery where they need to stay on the site of the hospital grounds. In 2013 the charity has refurbished two flats based at Addenbrokes Hospital in Cambridge and The Churchill Hospital in Oxford. To date 24 patients and families have benefitted from these new flats. In 2014 we will undertake refurbishments at University College Hospital, London and Salford Hospital, Salford.  

Oxford University Hospital TrusT

Predictive Factors for Conversion of Type 2 intestinal failure to type 3 Intestinal Failure in Crohn's Disease.

Intestinal failure is one of the major morbidities of Crohn's disease and its associated complications. Type 2 intestinal failure is usually linked to septic, metabolic and complex nutrition related complications. In relation to Crohn's this is seen in sepsis associated with Crohn's and in the pre and post operative periods of emergency resection.  The need for long term total parenteral nutrition (TPN) as seen in short bowel for example is what characterises type 3 intestinal failure. A structured approach to the management of type 2 intestinal failure patients helps in reducing the risk of them progressing to type 3 intestinal failure. TPN ( Total Parenteral Nutrition) has its known complications and indeed criteria for small bowel transplant mainly relate to patients with type three intestinal failure who are having major complications with TPN.

The aim of the study is try and identify those patients with type 2 intestinal failure who are likely to convert to type 3.  By identifying these patients we can identify an algorithm that might help predict which patients with type 2 intestinal failure are likely to convert to type 3.

University Of Liverpool

The research will focus on paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a life-long incurable disease with severe impact on children's and families' lives, requiring multiple clinic visits, hospital admissions, surgery and cancer screening.  The disease mechanisms and the individual differences in response to drugs warrant further studies in patients, and in the laboratory, where new technologies can be used to unravel how drugs are handled by the body, by cells in the gut and blood, critical sites which determine how drugs work.  We aim to explore the expression of a promising drug transporter (ABCB5) in human cells.  

Cambridge University Hospitals