Writer One in ten readers of this article will suffer from an ulcer at least once in their lifetime. It will affect either their stomach or their duodenum, which is the upper small intestine attached to the stomach.
Ulcers are internal wounds in the inner lining of the intestine.
They can be caused by stress, taking large amounts of anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, infection by bacteria called Helicobacter pylori or too much secretion of acid into the stomach. They found that a single injection of genetic material into the duodenum or the bloodstream of rats could heal duodenal ulcers within two weeks. Genetic material or DNA contains genes that instruct the cells of the body to produce certain proteins. They stimulate the healing process of wounds by inducing blood vessel growth. The researchers also showed that the injected genes led to increased production of VEGF and PDGF within one week.