Intestinal edema: effect of enteral feeding on motility and gene expression.
OBJECTIVE
Edema formation, inflammation, and ileus in the intestine are commonly seen in conditions like gastroschisis, inflammatory bowel disease, and cirrhosis. We hypothesized that early enteral feeding would improve intestinal transit. We also wanted to study the impact of early enteral feeding on global gene expression in the intestine.


METHODS
Rats were divided into Sham or Edema +/- immediate enteral nutrition (IEN). At 12 h, small intestinal transit via FITC-Dextran and tissue water were measured. Ileum was harvested for total RNA to analyze gene expression using cDNA microarray with validation using real-time PCR. Data are expressed as mean +/- SEM, n = 4-6 and (*), (**) = P < 0.05 versus all groups using ANOVA.


RESULTS
IEN markedly improved intestinal transit with minimal genetic alterations in Edema animals. Major alterations in gene expression were detected in primary, cellular and macromolecular metabolic activities. Edema also altered more genes involved with the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton.


CONCLUSIONS
Intestinal edema results in impaired small intestinal transit and globally increased gene expression. Early enteral nutrition improves edema-induced impaired transit and minimizes gene transcriptional activity.
Moore-Olufemi
Stacey D
SD
Department of Surgery, University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Padalecki
Jeff
J
Olufemi
Shodimu E
SE
Xue
Hasen
H
Oliver
Dwight H
DH
Radhakrishnan
Ravi S
RS
Allen
Steve J
SJ
Moore
Fred A
FA
Stewart
Randy
R
Laine
Glen A
GA
Cox
Charles S
CS
D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D003911:Dextrans; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004487:Edema / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
D000199:Actins; D003911:Dextrans; C015219:fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate