by Gina Riggio

Created on: January 23, 2008

Butyrate Causes Philosophical Diarrhea

Time for a vague headline of my own design, "Butyrate also doesn't really address the underlying cause of IBD, one study leads me to believe"

I like when interesting things take a flying leap toward my face. It is almost as exciting as trying to blow a bubble with super sugary bubble gum and seeing how big you can get it before it pops on your face and then you're picking it out of your hair for weeks. I assume that made very little sense and as you can see, I am riding hands-free over the manic peak of what I will be referring to from now on as "brainitis."

A recent study in the Journal of Gastroenterology aimed to observe some metabolic processes involving butyrate in the intestine and succeeded! Phew! Knowing more and more about less and less must be so exhausting!

They effectively noticed that in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, butyrate oxidation is impaired. Researchers investigated whether or not this impaired oxidation was due to a defect in the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT1), a finding that would indicate a reduced uptake of butyrate into cells and a possible cause for the observed poor butyrate oxidation. As it turns out, when a particular human intestinal cell line was treated with interferon-gamma and TNF-alpha in order to mimic the conditions typical of the inflammatory "experience," the expression of the gene that transcribes the mRNA that codes for the monocarboxylase transporter was down-regulated. So, DNA damage by inflammatory cytokines causes fewer transporters to be present within intestinal cell membranes, and indicates a reduced intestinal capacity to absorb butyrate and metabolize it. Researchers conclude, "This reinforces the proposition that butyrate oxidation deficiency in IBD is not a primary defect."

Ya think? So, tell me. Now that you have observed yet another negative influence that these cytokines have on normal cellular processes, why don't you try taking that extra step and possibly figuring out where the excess cytokine production is coming from?

I have not been able to obtain the hard copy of this study, so my analysis comes from its abstract and is lacking in detail. I'd like to read more about their actual methods, but I'll have to wait until I can get a print copy mailed to me.

Many naturopathic doctors prescribe butyrate to their IBD patients to heal the damaged mucosa, but how effective has this supplement been? I know in my own experiences, concentrated butyrate enemas did

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