Summary: Consuming green vegetables and adding a daily chlorophyllin supplement helps relieve symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, researchers report. Additionally, chlorophyllin supplements help to significantly reduce the risk of mortality associated with IBD.

Source: APS

The dietary supplement chlorophyllin alleviates inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, according to researchers from the Center for Diabetes and Metabolism Research at Sichuan University in China and Cedars Sinai Medical Los Angeles Center.

Additionally, chlorophyllin significantly reduces IBD-related mortality, weight loss, diarrhea and hidden blood in the stool, intestinal epithelial damage, and inflammatory cell infiltration.

The results are published before printing in the American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiologyand the study was chosen as the APS selection article for the month of August.

Chronic gastrointestinal disorders such as IBD affect tens of millions of people living in the United States. IBD has created a global health burden due to the increased cost of treating the disease.

Although the exact cause of IBD is not fully understood, some contributing factors include stress and environmental, lifestyle, and dietary choices, such as high consumption of meat or fish.

Chronic inflammation, abnormal autophagy – the body’s process of cleaning out damaged cells to make room for new, healthier cells – and lysosomal stress (an abnormality in an organelle leading to inflammation) are also linked to sickness.

Current therapies for IBD include drugs that suppress the immune system (immunosuppressants) and surgery. However, long-term use of immunosuppressive treatments could lead to serious adverse effects, including opportunistic infections and even organ failure.

In this study, researchers found that taking an oral supplement of chlorophyllin – a compound derived from the green pigment found in plants – reduced colitis and intestinal epithelial abnormalities in mice.

Additionally, consumption of green vegetables and chlorophyllin may be helpful for IBD recovery, in part through alleviating inflammation and autolysosomal flux (a process that uses the lysosome to break down and remove molecules and toxic organelles).

The green pigment found in these foods and supplements can initiate a feeding signal to modulate autophagy in cells, which suppresses IBD symptoms.

Researchers believe these findings could be a pathway to a less intrusive treatment for IBD.

“Consuming green-colored vegetables or green pigment supplements such as chlorophyllin may help people with inflammatory bowel disease,” said Xiaofeng Zheng, Ph.D., of Sichuan University and co. – author of the study.

About this diet and current inflammation research

Author: Press office
Source: APS
Contact: Press office – APS
Image: Image is in public domain

See also

Original research: Free access.
“Liver-on-a-chip devices: the pros and cons of complexity” by Philip Dalsbecker et al. American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology

Summary

Liver-on-a-chip devices: the pros and cons of complexity

Physiologically relevant and widely applicable liver cell culture platforms are of great importance in drug development and disease modeling.

Organ-on-a-chip systems offer a promising alternative to conventional, static two-dimensional (2-D) cultures, providing much-needed signals such as perfusion, shear stress, and three-dimensional (3-D) cell-to-cell. Communication.

However, such devices cover a wide range of complexity in both fabrication and implementation. In this review, we summarize key features of the human liver that should be reflected in a physiologically relevant liver-on-a-chip model.

We also discuss different material properties important in the production of liver-on-chip devices and summarize recent and current advances in the field, highlighting different types of devices at different levels of complexity.