KYW Newsradio’s Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
People who suffer from scleroderma have symptoms like stiffness, fatigue, pain and breathing difficulties, and many of the symptoms are due to the stiffening of vital organs. The problem is that the disease creates excessive fibroblast activation, which ultimately results in tissue damage and organ failure.
According to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a molecule called EZH2, which has been known to play a role in cancer, may be involved in both scleroderma and another condition called lupus.
Researchers are now looking more closely at EZH2 to see if treatment can make a difference, and studies are ongoing.