Commentaries
Serine proteases: new players in diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome
Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University of Bologna, Italy
Correspondence to:
Dr Giovanni Barbara, Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, St. Orsola Hospital – Building No.5, Via Massarenti, 9, I-40138, Bologna, Italy; giovanni.barbara@unibo.it
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The classical scenario depicting irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as a disturbance of the psychological sphere, accompanied by gut sensory and motor dysfunction, is being enriched by the identification of previously unrecognised peripherally acting molecular factors.
The relatively recent identification that IBS can be triggered in previously healthy individuals by a bout of infectious gastroenteritis (ie, post-infectious IBS) is a clear paradigm of the participation of biological factors in the pathogenesis of IBS.1 Abnormal metabolism of the important gut neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT), tissue immune activation, increased mucosal permeability and changes in gut microbiota are other examples of the recent discoveries obtained by application of a molecular approach to IBS research.2 The identified cellular and molecular factors have been found to impact on the sensory and motor apparatus of the gut and, for certain aspects, they were associated with patients’ symptoms. For example, activated mast cells in proximity to colonic nerves correlated
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Gut 2008 57: 591-599.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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