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Carbon monoxide reverses diabetic gastric problem in mice

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"This is a significant finding, as it shows that loss of the enzyme that makes carbon monoxide is the actor in this process and that it provides us with a clear approach toward a possible new therapy for this condition," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and lead investigator on the study.

Gastroparesis occurs when the stomach retains undigested food for long periods. When that food eventually passes into the small intestine, insulin is released. Because the passage of food out of the stomach becomes unpredictable, maintaining a proper blood glucose level -- critical for controlling diabetes -- also becomes difficult. Gastroparesis can cause pain, nausea, vomiting, stomach spasms and weight loss due to inability to ingest enough nutrients. In some patients with diabetes, the abnormally high blood glucose levels cause chemical changes in nerves and in pacemaker cells, which regulate digestive processes in the gut, and damage blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to cells.

Previous studies by the Mayo team showed that gastroparesis is associated with the loss of up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO1) and an increase in oxidative stress. It also causes a loss of Kit, a marker for the pacemakers cells called interstitial cells of Cajal, which regulate muscle contraction in the digestive tract. When the team induced HO1 production, signs of oxidative stress dropped and gastroparesis was restored along with Kit.

The metabolite that normalized gastric functioning was not known. Suspecting carbon monoxide, the Mayo investigators studied ten mice with diabetes that had exhibited delayed gastric emptying. Five mice were given carbon monoxide by inhalation (100 parts per million) for six hours daily. Within three weeks gastroparesis reversed, oxidative stress decreased and Kit expression increased, all without increasing HO1 expression.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Mayo Clinic. Other members of the Mayo team were Purna Kashyap, M.B.B.S.; Kyoung Moo Choi, Ph.D.; Matthew Lurken; Nirjhar Dutta; Joseph Szurszewski, Ph.D.; and Simon Gibbons, Ph.D.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your health stories. For more on Mayo Clinic research, go to www.mayo.edu.

Links embedded in this release:

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D. = http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/staff/farrugia_g.cfm

Amy Tieder | Quelle: EurekAlert!
Weitere Informationen: www.mayo.edu

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