title: Glucosamine, a naturally occurring amino monosaccharide, suppresses dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in rats.
abstract: Glucosamine, a naturally occurring amino monosaccharide, is widely used to treat osteoarthritis in humans. Furthermore, glucosamine exhibits an anti-inflammatory action by inhibiting the activation of neutrophils, chondrocytes and synoviocytes. Recently, we revealed that glucosamine suppresses cytokine-induced activation of intestinal epithelial cells in vitro. In the present study therefore, we investigated whether glucosamine exhibits the anti-inflammatory effect in vivo, using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in rats, a model of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The results indicated that glucosamine improved the clinical symptoms (evaluated by disease activity index), and suppressed colonic inflammation (evaluated by colon length and weight/length ratio) and tissue injury (evaluated by histological damage score) in DSS-induced colitis. Furthermore, glucosamine inhibited the activation of intestinal epithelial cells, as evidenced by the suppressed phosphorylation of NF-kappaB in the intestinal mucosa of DSS-induced colitis. Collectively, these observations suggest that glucosamine is likely to suppress the activation of intestinal epithelial cells in vivo, thereby possibly exhibiting anti-inflammatory action in a DSS-induced rat colitis model. Thus, glucosamine could prove to be a useful agent for IBD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Host Defense and Biochemical Research, Biomedical Research Center, Juntendo University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yomogida
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsutsumi-Ishii
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D039481:CD11b Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D003092:Colitis / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D016264:Dextran Sulfate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005944:Glucosamine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D009005:Monosaccharides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D039481:CD11b Antigen; D016207:Cytokines; D009005:Monosaccharides; D016328:NF-kappa B; D016264:Dextran Sulfate; D005944:Glucosamine