LETTER

Haemorrhoids and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1

F F di Mola¹, H Friess², J Köninger², F Selvaggi², I Esposito³, M W Büchler⁴, P di Sebastiano⁵

¹ Department of Abdominal Surgery, IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, and Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany
² Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany
³ Department of Pathology, University of Heidelberg, Germany
⁴ Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany
⁵ Department of Abdominal Surgery, IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr H Friess
Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 110, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Helmut_Friess@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Keywords: transient receptor potential vanilloid 1; haemorrhoids

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Haemorrhoids are extremely common, and approximately 10 million people are affected by haemorrhoidal disease in the USA.¹ Many causes have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of symptomatic haemorrhoids. The pathophysiological theory, made popular by Thomson’s studies, in which the elastic support of the anal cushions is thought to be broken, is currently the best accepted.¹

The function and control of anorectal arteriovenous anastomoses remain unclear as does the existence of individual susceptibility to haemorrhoidal disease, which is influenced by socioeconomic, cultural, and psychological factors.¹ Previous studies have established that intake of hot pepper and alcohol abuse may influence disease progression and cause acute exacerbation of haemorrhoidal disease.²

We investigated haemorrhoidal disease and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TPVR1), the receptor for capsaicin, the spicy component contained in plants of the genus Capsicum.³ TPVR1 is a non-selective cation channel that is expressed and stimulates primary sensory neurones. Noxious heat . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Liedtke, W. (2007). Hydromineral Neuroendocrinology: Role of TRPV ion channels in sensory transduction of osmotic stimuli in mammals. Exp Physiol 92: 507-512 [Abstract] [Full Text]