Low levels of glutathione in endoscopic biopsies ofpatients with Crohn's colitis: the role of malnutrition

Does active Crohn's disease have decreased intestinal antioxidant capacity?

“…Unlike our study, the fact that intestinal segments were obtained surgically and the control group included patients with colon cancer may have affected these results. [33][34][35] In keeping with our results, Miralles-Barrachina et al 34 have also found lower GSH T concentrations in inflamed CD intestinal mucosa using a control group with no comorbidities that could alter antioxidant capacity and similar methodology with fragments from endoscopic biopsies.…”

“…33 Nutritional imbalance cannot explain decreased levels of GSH T found in inflamed mucosa in our population due to the fact that no significant weight loss was found in CD patients and no correlation between BMI and concentrations of GSH and GSH T was detected. Even though a reduced protein-calorie intake associated with an increased intestinal protein loss may reduce the availability of substrate for GSH metabolism in patients with CD, 34 no significant deficit was observed in energetic protein intake in the CD group as well as no differences in protein concentrations in inflamed compared to non-inflamed intestinal mucosa were observed. It is worth mentioning that although statistically significant differences were not verified in the mucosal protein concentration among the groups, our small sample size could account for the lack of association regarding this parameter.…”

“…Differences in methodologies used in these studies, however, do not allow accurate comparisons with the present study. In addition, possible methodological limitations can be observed in these previous studies, such as the inadequate choice for controls composed of samples with known altered GPx activity, as in colon cancer 33,34 and surgically obtained intestinal fragments. 35 Furthermore, Kruidenier et al assayed the activity of GPx with cumene hydroperoxide, substrate metabolized by both GPx and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), a non-specificity that might have led to the erroneous conclusion that GPx activity was elevated.…”

Effects of glutamine supplementation on gut barrier, glutathione content and acute phase response in malnourished rats during inflammatory shock

“…In summary, our results indicate that glutamine supports glutathione stores and may support the intestinal acute phase response in the jejunum of malnourished rats during inflammatory shock. Since a marked glutathione depletion has been observed during inflammatory bowel diseases, specially when combined with malnutrition [8] , the beneficial effects of glutamine-supplemented diets on antioxidative capacities and gut integrity in inflammatory conditions with associated malnutrition should be evaluated.…”

“…Glutathione has been shown to play an important role in the protection of intestinal mucosa against exogenous injury both in vitro [4,5] and in vivo [6] . Intestinal mucosa glutathione content falls markedly following a period of protein restriction [7] and also in patients with inflammatory bowel disease [8,9] . The depletion of reduced glutathione content in the mucosa could therefore favor oxidative stress within the mucosa.…”