“This day is all about education and prevention,” said doctor Elisabeth Jurack from the Excellence Cluster. Hardly anyone knows how important the immune system is for the internal organs. If it gets disrupted, for example through incorrect nutrition, it can lead to a sort of “burnout”.

Microbiologist Zeinab Abdullah explained that fatty liver can destroy the function of the organ in the long term. “The immune cells are destroyed resulting in inflammation,” says Abdullah. This is how, for example, a seasonal flu can lead to multi-organ failure in a person with a weakened immune system, because the cells’ defences no longer function as they should. Worldwide, 1.2 million people die from cirrhosis of the liver, an estimated 170,000 in Europe.

It is not only overweight people who are affected. Slim people can also suffer from fatty liver, for example if they tend to eat fatty foods, explains Abdullah. “A balanced diet and lots of movement are key,” says Nicolas Wernert, the dean of the medical faculty at Bonn University.

The visitors are amazed. Wide-eyed, they look into the accessible lungs and liver. Who knows what the body looks like from the inside? One woman slowly strokes the raised areas on a part of the lung that stand out clearly as metastases. Another carefully walks through the model.

The Cluster of Excellence carries out research and searches for the best possible treatments. Abdullah explained that one of the priorities is research into cirrhosis of the liver. Researchers in the association discovered that intestinal bacteria that migrate to the liver during cirrhosis of the liver, damage the immune defences, which can be fatal. The scientists are trying to understand how cirrhosis of the liver affects the immune cells necessary for effective defence, in order to uncover the mechanisms and develop appropriate therapies.

Original text: Susanne Wächter. Translation: kc