Methylglyoxal Induces Systemic Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract

Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) show a wide range of symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal pain, changes in bowel habits, nausea, vomiting, headache, anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment. Methylglyoxal has been proved to be a potential toxic metabolite produced by intestinal bacteria. The present study was aimed at investigating the correlation between methylglyoxal and irritable bowel syndrome. Rats were treated with an enema infusion of methylglyoxal. Fecal water content, visceral sensitivity, behavioral tests and serum 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were assessed after methylglyoxal exposure. Our data showed that fecal water content was significantly higher than controls after methylglyoxal exposure except that of 30 mM group. Threshold volumes on balloon distension decreased in the treatment groups. All exposed rats showed obvious head scratching and grooming behavior and a decrease in sucrose preference. The serum 5-HT values were increased in 30, 60, 90 mM groups and decreased in 150 mM group. Our findings suggested that methylglyoxal could induce diarrhea, visceral hypersensitivity, headache as well as depression-like behaviors in rats, and might be the key role in triggering systemic symptoms of IBS.

Effects of Fengliao-Changweikang in Diarrhea-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome Rats and Its Mechanism Involving Colonic Motility

“…These results suggested that the model of IBS-D was established successfully. 29,31 After the treatment, the wet feces weight, total number of fecal pellets and fecal water content in the FLCWK group, and the pinaverium bromide group were reduced more than that in the NMS + RS group (n = 8, wet feces weight: drug groups: P < 0.05; total number of fecal pellets: high dose group, middle dose group, pinaverium bromide group: P < 0.01, low dose group: P < 0.05; fecal water content: high dose group, middle dose group, pinaverium bromide group: P < 0.01, low dose group: P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was no statistical difference in fecal indexes between the drug groups and the NH group (n = 8, P > 0.05), except the low dose group (n = 8, total number of fecal pellets: P < 0.05; fecal water content: P < 0.05).…”

Glycolytic metabolite methylglyoxal inhibits cold and menthol activation of the transient receptor potential melastatin type 8 channel

“…Concentrations in the same range as those used in our report (higher than 100 μM MG) were used in recent in vitro studies investigating the effects of MG on ion channels and transporters (Ohkawara et al, ; Quadri et al, ; Yang et al, ) and in experiments carried out on isolated rat thoracic aorta (Mukohda et al, ). In the bowel, the relevant concentrations could be even higher than the ones used in this work (Zhang et al, ).…”

“…MG can also be synthesized from dihydroxyacetone phosphate by anaerobic bacteria that colonize the gastrointestinal tract (Baskaran et al, ), and under these circumstances MG may induce irritable bowel syndrome (Zhang et al, ). Dietary MG (e.g., from mānuka honey) is degraded in the intestine (Degen et al, ).…”

Tannerella forsythia‐produced methylglyoxal causes accumulation of advanced glycation endproducts to trigger cytokine secretion in human monocytes

“…MGO produced by intestinal bacteria is reported as a potential toxic metabolite involved in many gut diseases, including functional constipation . Moreover, microbiomes of functionally constipated individuals show a lower abundance of genes involved in MGO degradation compared with healthy microbiomes . Together, these studies point to MGO being a toxic metabolite in gut diseases.…”