The Efficacy of the Consumption of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids for the Maintenance of Remission in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) represents a group of intestinal disorders that cause prolonged inflammation of the digestive tract. The two major types of IBD are ulcerative colitis (UC), which is limited to the colonic mucosa, and Crohn disease (CD), which can affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus, involves "skip lesions," and is transmural.

With respect to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is metabolized to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). N-3 PUFA are essential fatty acids present in large amounts in perilla oil and fish oils and inhibit the metabolism of n-6 PUFA by competitively antagonizing metabolic enzymes, such as delta 6- and delta 5-desaturases, cyclooxygenase (COX) and 5 lipoxygenase (LOX), thereby producing anti-inflammatory actions by inhibiting the synthesis of AA-derived inflammatory mediators and thromboxane A2 (TXA2). Therefore, it is thought that the regulation of the n-3/n-6 ratio with a therapeutic diet may be important for reducing disease activity in patients with IBD.

In this study, the authors aimed to investigate the efficacy of the actual consuming n-3 PUFA for remission-maintenance in IBD patients. A questionnaire on the dietary habits of patients one month before hospitalization (Q1) was completed by 24 patients with IBD (10 ulcerative colitis (UC) subjects and 14 Crohn’s disease (CD) subjects) treated at the hospital. The authors educated the study subjects about an n-3 PUFA diet, and a follow-up survey (Q2) was conducted 6 to 12 months after discharge. Disease activity was evaluated using the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) score and/or the Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (CDAI) score for CD and the partial UCDAI score without endoscopic evaluation for UC.

Q1 showed that the average n-3 and n-6 PUFA intakes were 1673 ± 1651 mg and 9146 ± 5217 mg, respectively, and the average n-3/n-6 ratio was 0.27 ± 0.31. In Q2, the intake of n-3 PUFA was significantly higher (3671 ± 1684 mg, p < 0.001), whereas the n-6 PUFA intake decreased significantly (5217 ± 1973 mg, p < 0.001) compared to those in Q1. As a consequence, the dietary n-3/ n-6 ratio was significantly increased (0.87 ± 0.60, p < 0.001). Maintenance of the remission rate was significantly higher in IBD patients who complied with the n-3 diet, and these patients maintained a dietary n-3/n-6 ratio of 0.432 or higher (17 of 23 cases; 70.8%, p < 0.03) compared to that observed for IBD patients who did not comply with the diet.

In short, these results suggest that adherence to the n-3 diet and its impact on the maintenance of remission may be achieved by understanding the importance of adjustments to dietary PUFA.

Article by Kan Uchiyama, et al, from Japan.

Full access: http://mrw.so/qRPY9

Image by Roberta Renfrow, from Flickr-cc.

Identifying Sustainable Practices for Tapping and Sap Collection from Birch Trees

Tapping and collecting sap from birch trees ( Betula , sp.) for the production of beverages and syrup is gaining increased levels of interest. Although the practice of tapping birch trees and collecting sap has been ongoing for millennia across the world, there remain some critical data needed in order to make science-based decisions about the production practices required to optimize yields and ensure sustainable outcomes are achieved in the long-term. In this study, experiments were conducted to determine two pieces of information essential to identify practices necessary to ensure tapping trees for birch sap collection were both sustainable and profitable—the selection of the time to initiate tapping birch trees to obtain maximum yields, and the volume of nonconductive wood (NCW) associated with taphole wounds in birch trees. The yields obtained from various timing treatments varied between sapflow seasons, but indicated that using test tapholes to choose the appropriate ti

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Incorporation of High-Altitude Balloon Experiment in High School Science Classrooms

High-altitude balloon is a balloon, filled usually with helium or hydrogen that ascends into an area called “near space” or stratosphere. The most common type of high-altitude balloons are weather balloons. Other purposes include use as a platform for experiments in the upper atmosphere. Modern balloons generally contain electronic equipment such as radio transmitters, cameras, or satellite navigation systems, such as GPS receivers. The mission of the High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE) is to acquire supporting data, validate enabling technologies, and resolve critical acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) and fire control issues in support of future space-based precision pointing experiments. The use of high-altitude balloons offers a relatively low-cost, low-vibration test platform, a recoverable and reusable payload, worldwide launch capability, and a 'near- space' emulation of the future space systems operational scenarios. More recently, several university

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Esophageal Carcinogenesis

Read full paper at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=50380#.VDy9v1fHRK0 Author(s) Naoki Watanabe 1 , Masahito Shimizu 2 , Takahiro Kochi 2 , Yohei Shirakami 2 , Takuji Tanaka 1,3* Affiliation(s) 1 Department of Diagnostic Pathology (DDP) & Research Center of Diagnostic Pathology (RC-DiP), Gifu Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan . 2 Department of Internal Medicine/Gastroenterology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan . 3 Department of Tumor Pathology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan . ABSTRACT Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death and remains one of the least survivable cancers. Esophageal cancers show wide variations in incidence in different pop

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