A painful lipid in irritable bowel syndrome

Abstract

Pain Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often experience abdominal pain. Bautzova et al. found that the abundance of the polyunsaturated fatty acid 5-oxoETE was selectively increased in colonic biopsies from patients with a subtype of IBS characterized by constipation. They showed that 5-oxoETE increased pain sensitivity in mice without eliciting inflammation and stimulated both mouse and human pain-sensing neurons expressing the G protein–coupled receptor Mrgprd. Knockdown of Mrgprd in mice reduced the percentage of neurons that responded to 5-oxoETE and decreased pain sensitivity. Sci. Signal. 11 , eaal2171 (2018).