Dietary fiber in protection of intestinal mucosal barrier in patients with ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Objective To explore the protective effect of enteral nutrition (EN) containing dietary fiber complex (DFC) in intestinal mucosal barrier function in patients with ulcerative colitis.Methods The patients with ulcerative colitis received sulfasalazine tablets of 1.0 g four times daily for two weeks.Then 90 of the patients whose symptoms did not become severe were randomly divided into three groups.Group C received no-DFC nutrition,while group T1 and T2 separately received EN with soluble dietary fiber or insoluble dietary fiber (every 500 kcal of EN with 7.5 g DFC) in certain proportion of 1 ∶ 3.Before and after a 7-day treatment,plasma concentrations of TNF-α and endotoxin (ET) were detected.Results 7 days after therapy with EN,concentration of TNF-α (144.5 ± 20.0) ng/L in group T1 and (140.6 ± 19.2) ng/L in group T2 was markedly lower than that in group C (170.7 ± 30.4) ng/L (P＜0.05),while the difference between groups T1 and T2 had no statistical significance (P＞0.05).Concentration of ET (0.137 ± 0.018) Eu/ml in group T1 or (0.130 ± 0.017) Eu/ml in group T2 was lower than that in group C (0.156 ± 0.012) Eu/ml (P＜0.05),and there was no statistical difference between groups T1 and T2 (P＞0.05).C onclusions Enteral nutrition containing proper amount of dietary fiber complex can reduce intestinal permeability and protect intestinal mucosal barrier function in patients with ulcerative colitis. Key words: Ulcerative colitis; Mucosal barrier; Dietary fiber; Tumor necrosis factor; Endotoxin