title: Medium-chain triglyceride-rich enteral nutrition is more effective than low-fat enteral nutrition in rat colitis, but is equal in enteritis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although enteral nutrition (EN) therapy for Crohn's disease has been confirmed to be as effective as steroid therapy, the precise mechanism responsible for the effects of EN remains unclear, although some of the therapeutic effects of EN are believed to be due to a low dietary fat content. In order to elucidate the influence of fat in EN, it is important to investigate not only the quantity of fat, but also the source of the fat.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared two enteral nutritional formulae: Elental (Ajinomoto) (elemental diet; ED), which contains only 1.5% fat, provided as long-chain triglycerides (LCT), versus Twinline (Snow Brand Milk Products) (TL), which contains a high percentage of fat (20.4%), provided mainly as medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). These formulae were tested on rat enteritis and rat colitis induced by trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both ED and TL reduced the manifestations of enteritis. TL had a stronger anti-inflammatory effect than ED for colitis. TL also had nutritional advantages as compared with ED, as shown by the total serum protein in the TL group being significantly higher than that in the ED group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that intraluminal MCT is suitable as a fat energy source during intestinal inflammation in rats. We suggest that Twinline may be more useful to improve nutritional status and to reduce the mucosal inflammation in rat colitis, but that Twinline is equal in effect to Elental for rat enteritis.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Internal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta, Otsu, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsujikawa
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yasuoka
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukunaga
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Itohi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ihara
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andoh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiyama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bamba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D003092:Colitis / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D003106:Colon / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000379:methods*; D004751:Enteritis / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry; D005774:Gastrostomy; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014302:Trinitrobenzenesulfonic Acid
chemical_list: D014302:Trinitrobenzenesulfonic Acid