Four months of diet supplementation with fish oil in patients with inflammatory bowel disease resulted in reductions in rectal dialysate leukotriene B4 levels, improvements in histologic findings, and weight gain.

No abstract

Surface-active phospholipid-containing particles are traditionally considered to be the product of type II pneumocytes. We now demonstrate membrane-bound lamellar cytoplasmic organelles in adult and suckling rat enterocytes that are densely reactive with phospholipid-staining reagents. These structures were seen in the basolateral space, within the intercellular junctions, and unraveling on the lumenal surface, and were more abundant after fat feeding. Light scrapings of intestinal mucosa and lumenal washings that contained these bodies, as evidenced by morphology and biochemical analysis, lowered surface tension in a pulsating bubble assay. Production by normal enterocytes of material with surfactant-like appearance and properties demonstrates that these structures are present in extrapulmonary epithelia, and extends the possible range of their function beyond gaseous exchange, e.g., solute exchange or lubrication on membrane surfaces.

To further examine whether surfactant-like particles (DeSchryver-Kecskemeti, K., R. Eliakim, S. Carroll, W. F. Stenson, M. A. Moxley, and D. H. Alpers. 1989. J. Clin. Invest. 84:1355-1361 were involved in the transepithelial transport of lipid, alkaline phosphatase activity and surfactant-like particle content were measured in apical mucosal scrapings, enterocytes, lamina propria, and serum after inhibition of chylomicron transport. Serum triacylglycerol levels were decreased 60-76% by Pluronic L-81, fenfluramine, and choline deficiency compared with fat-fed controls. 5 h after triacylglycerol feed, alkaline phosphatase activity in all three experimental groups was decreased compared with controls by 52-69% in mucosal scrapings and by 33-72% in serum. A parallel decline (60%) in alkaline phosphatase activity occurred in the lamina propria of Pluronic-treated animals. Total particle content (measured by an ELISA using antiserum against purified particle) after Pluronic treatment was decreased in mucosal scrapings, lamina propria, and serum by 16, 22, and 29% at 3 h and by 33, 40, and 8%, respectively, at 5 h after fat feeding. In contrast, particle content was increased in enterocytes by 29% 3 h and by 8% 5 h after fat feeding. By electron microscopy, enterocytes from Pluronic-and fenfluramine-treated animals exhibited a two-to threefold increase in large intracellular cytoplasmic lipid globules and the appearance of lamellae in apposition, with a marked decrease in the number of surfactantlike particles overlying the brush border. These changes, produced by inhibition of chylomicron transport, in the distribution of surfactant-like particles and particle-bound alkaline phosphatase are consistent with a role for these particles in transepithelial triacylglycerol transport across and out of the enterocyte. (J. Clin. Invest. 1994. 93:70-80.)

The immunologic priming provided by a short course of prednisone used with alpha interferon may be an effective treatment for selected patients with chronic type B hepatitis.