Elevated pro inflammatory and lipotoxic mucosal lipids characterise irritable bowel syndrome

World J Gastroenterol. 2009 Dec 28;15(48):6068-74.

Elevated pro-inflammatory and lipotoxic mucosal lipids characterise irritable bowel syndrome.

Kajander K, Myllyluoma E, Kyrönpalo S, Rasmussen M, Sipponen P, Mattila I, Seppänen-Laakso T, Vapaatalo H, Oresic M, Korpela R. Institute of Biomedicine, Pharmacology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 63, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

AIM: To investigate the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by comparing the global mucosal metabolic profiles of IBS patients with those of healthy controls.

METHODS: Fifteen IBS patients fulfilling the Rome II criteria, and nine healthy volunteers were included in the study. A combined lipidomics (UPLC/MS) and metabolomics (GC x GC-TOF) approach was used to achieve global metabolic profiles of mucosal biopsies from the ascending colon.

RESULTS: Overall, lipid levels were elevated in patients with IBS. The most significant upregulation was seen for pro-inflammatory lysophosphatidylcholines. Other lipid groups that were significantly upregulated in IBS patients were lipotoxic ceramides, glycosphingolipids, and di- and triacylglycerols. Among the metabolites, the cyclic ester 2(3H)-furanone was almost 14-fold upregulated in IBS patients compared to healthy subjects (P = 0.03).

CONCLUSION: IBS mucosa is characterised by a distinct pro-inflammatory and lipotoxic metabolic profile. Especially, there was an increase in several lipid species such as lysophospholipids and ceramides.

PMID: 20027679 [PubMed - in process]