ALIMENTARY TRACT: Original Articles

Metabonomic Understanding of Probiotic Effects in Humans With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Hong, Young-Shick PhD; Hong, Kyoung Sup MD; Park, Min-Hwa MSc; Ahn, Young-Tae PhD; Lee, Jung-Hee PhD; Huh, Chul-Sung PhD; Lee, Jaekyung MD; Kim, In-Kyoung MD; Hwang, Geum-Sook PhD; Kim, Joo Sung MD, PhD

Author Information

^* Korea Basic Science Institute

^† School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Korea University

^‡ Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul

^§ R & D Center, Korea Yakult Co., Yongin

^∥ Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Republic of Korea

Supported by a grant from Korea Yakult Co., Ltd., and a grant from Korea Basic Science Institute (T30613).

Young-Shick Hong and Kyoung Sup Hong have contributed equally.

Competing Interests: The authors had no competing interest.

Ethical Approval: Approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Supplemental Digital Content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's Website (www.jcge.com).

Reprints: Geum-Sook Hwang, PhD, Korea Basic Science Institute, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea (e-mail: [email protected]).

Received July 21, 2010

Accepted November 18, 2010

Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology 45(5):p 415-425, May/June 2011. | DOI: 10.1097/MCG.0b013e318207f76c

Abstract

Goals

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of probiotics on adult patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) through clinical parameters and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics.

Background

As systematic effect of probiotics on inflammatory bowel disease through metabonomics approach has been extensively studied to date, metabonomic characterization of the probiotics effect on IBS is also needed for better understanding the effect with respect to host metabolic mechanism.

Study

Seventy-four IBS patients meeting Rome criteria were randomized to receive probiotics and placebo through a parallel-group, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study. Probiotic fermented milk and placebo were administered 3 times daily for 8 weeks. Improvements of IBS were assessed according to Rome III questionnaires and ¹H NMR metabolic profiling of serum and fecal samples from all participants was used to characterize a significant change in serum and fecal metabolome before and after probiotics.

Results

Fecal counts of the Lactobacilli, but not Bifidobacteria species, which included in the probiotic milk, were increased significantly in feces of IBS patients receiving treatment (P=0.014). NMR data set coupled with multivariate statistical analysis identified intrinsically elevated serum levels of glucose (P=0.0265) and tyrosine (P=0.0016) in IBS patients. These levels normalized to those of healthy individuals in the probiotic administration group, but not the placebo group.

Conclusions

This metabonomic study suggests that in a subset of IBS patients there exists a potential dysregulation in energy homeostasis (serum glucose) and liver function (serum tyrosine) that may be improved through probiotics supplementation. Moreover, global metabolic profiling highlights the potential of metabonomic approach for assessing bowel diseases or symptoms with respect to host metabolic perturbation.

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Metabonomic Understanding of Probiotic Effects in Humans With Irritable Bowel Syndrome