Our previous short-term experiment demonstrated that seed oil from bitter melon (Momordica charantia) (BMO), which is rich in cis(c)9, trans(t)11, t13-conjugated linolenic acid (CLN), inhibited the development of azoxymethane (AOM)induced colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF). In our study, the possible inhibitory effect of dietary administration of BMO on the development of colonic neoplasms was i...

Sargassum horneri is an edible marine brown alga distributed along the seacoast of Japan. Here we examined effects on the water-soluble (ethanol-insoluble) extracts (EIS) from Sargassum horneri on ion transports across the isolated rat colonic mucosa set in Ussing chambers. The nonpolysaccharide fraction of EIS (EIS-2) significantly decreased short-circuit current (Isc) across the mucosa, and i...

Mucosal immune activation and altered serotonin metabolism participate in the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, the reciprocal interplay between these two systems remains unknown. We evaluated the expression and release of interferon (IFN)-γ from the colonic mucosa of patients with IBS and its impact on serotonin reuptake transporter (SERT) gene expression in Caco-2 ce...

UNLABELLED Experimental colitis induced by acetic acid has been used extensively as a model for intestinal inflammatory disease. Colonic tissue lesions of intestinal inflammatory disease patients seem to be related to the increased local production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma). PURPOSE To assess the cytokine expression pattern identified through immunoh...

BACKGROUND Probiotics seem to possess tumour inhibitory properties, but few studies have investigated their actions on the cell proliferation of normal colonic mucosa. The effects of a probiotic mixture (VSL#3) on polyamine biosynthesis, Ki-67 levels and apoptosis in the normal colon of rats were studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS For a 4-week period, 20 rats were fed a VSL#3 solution and 20 rats...

Phlebosclerotic colitis is a rare disease of intestinal ischemia and differentiating it from the typical ischemic colitis. It is caused by venous obstruction due to colonic and mesenteric venous calcification. We report a 36-year-old woman presenting with intermittent abdominal pain. Initial radiologic findings showed multiple tortuous thread-like calcifications in the region of the right side ...

BACKGROUND We have previously reported that colonic pericryptal microvascular blood flow is augmented in the premalignant colonic epithelium, highlighting the increased metabolic demand of the proliferative epithelium as a marker of field carcinogenesis. However, its molecular basis is unexplored. In this study, we assessed the expression of a regulator of the "lipogenic switch," fatty acid syn...

Longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC) is a disease of chronic inflammation of the colon. It is associated with the development of colorectal cancer through a multistep process including increasing degrees of dysplasia and DNA-ploidy changes. However, not all UC patients will develop these characteristics even during lifelong disease, and patients may therefore be divided into progressors who dev...

The aim of our study was to demonstrate higher concentrations of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the colonic mucosa in operated colorectal cancer patients treated with oral intake of synbiotics or prebiotics preoperatively. We also tried to prove that the systemic inflammatory response after surgery is not so severe in patients who took synbiotics or prebiotics, furthermore these patients have le...

Colorectal carcinogenesis is a complex multistep process that includes changes in histomorphological appearance of the colonic mucosa and changes at molecular level. Aberrant crypt foci (ACF) was first described by Bird in 1987 on examination of methylene-blue-stained colonic mucosa of azoxymethane-treated mice under light microscopy. Since then ACF was considered as the earliest preneoplastic ...