NEW RESULTS: Elevated mucosal lipids characterize irritable bowel syndrome

Monday, 25 January 2010 19:02

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common diagnosis in gastroenterology. The syndrome is classified as functional, and no biological marker exists for IBS.

The precise origination and pathophysiology is not fully known, and this might partly explain why pharmacotherapy is considered rather ineffective. More data on the molecular abnormalities in IBS are required to better understand the mechanism behind the emergence of symptoms, and to be able to treat the patients in a safe and efficient way.

In a study conducted by researchers from Valio Oy and VTT technical Research Centre of Finland, metabolomic profile differences between colonic mucosa from IBS patients (N=15) and healthy controls (N=9) were characterized using two high-throughput metabolomic platforms: UPLC/MS based lipidomics and GC × GC-TOF based metabolomics. Metabolomics is a powerful tool for investigating diseases with complex or unknown backgrounds, because it is possible to simultaneously measure and model a huge number of metabolites.

The study revealed multiple differences between IBS mucosa and healthy mucosa. Increase in the IBS group of several lipid species, such as pro-inflammatory lysophospholipids and lipotoxic ceramides, was the major difference observed. The study has thus provided novel information as well as an insight about pathophysiology of IBS. By better understanding the mucosal abnormalities behind IBS, it might be possible to improve the diagnosis and therapy of patients.

Reference

Kajander, K., Myllyluoma, E., Kyrönpalo, S., Rasmussen, M., Sipponen, P., Mattila, I., Seppänen-Laakso, T., Vapaatalo, H., Orešič, M., Korpela, R. Elevated pro-inflammatory and lipotoxic mucosal lipids characterize irritable bowel syndrome, World J. Gatroenterol. 15, 6068-6074 (2009).
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3748/wjg.15.6068]

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