Posted by I did my STEAM project on celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that causes the destruction of the villi in the small intestines when the person affected consumes gluten. For the art portion of the assignment, I decided to bake cinnamon rolls! I shaped them to look like the small intestines and topped them with icing that had TONS of red food coloring. They were delicious and now my teeth are pink. Ironically, they are not gluten-free.
My partner Brianna Waller did her STEAM project on Celiac disease. She did her media to look like the small intestines out of cinnamon rolls. Brianna did a good job making the cinnamon rolls look like small intestines, and they looked quite YUMMY! She also did a great job at explaining what Celiac Disease is and how it affects the small intestines.
Celiac disease by definition is an autoimmune condition that causes damage to the inner lining of the small intestine. The normal structure of the inner surface of the small intestine lining is composed of undulating wavy projections called villi that help increase the surface area of the intestine for effective absorption of nutrients. In celiac disease, the patients are intolerant to protein in gluten, found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats. When gluten is ingested the immune system overreacts and responds by attacking the cells lining the small intestine leading to the destruction of the villi. As a result, this can lead to malnutrition regardless of the quality or quantity of food consumed. Celiac disease is typically associated with genetics however, the environment can play a role in the cause of the disease.
I liked in Brianna’s essay that she described the pathogenesis of celiac disease “a2-gliadin peptide p31-42, found in gluten (Friedman 157). This gliadin peptide is not completely digested in the small intestine, so remnants are taken into the intestinal wall where the enzymes tTG modifies it.” Several people know what celiac disease, but no one can tell you the specific peptide that causes the condition.
She further explains in her essay that not every individual who has Celiac disease will be symptomatic and the symptoms can range from weight loss, and stunted growth in children to abdominal pain, and diarrhea in others.
Her project was easy to tell what she was basing her paper off of and her paper was very easy to read and understand. All in all, I believe she did a really great job.