Betacyanins Inhibits Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in Vitro

By Kyle J. Norton

Inflammation is a natural reaction of the immune system against the invasion of the foreign stimuli and pathogens with an aim to protect our body from infection.

In the acute phase of tissue damage or injury, after receiving the information from the neurotransmitters, the white blood cells that response for the first line of defense activate the production of blood platelets and the inflammatory cytokines to the site of infection to destroy the invasive agents.

However, in most cases, overproduction of inflammatory cytokines can damage the nearby cells that lead to improper healing with the formation of scars.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a class of chronic conditions associated with the inflammation of the digestive tract, can be classified into

* Ulcerative colitis is found in the innermost lining of the colon and rectum. 

* Crohn's disease is a type of IBD that causes inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, other than the colon and rectum.

Epidemiological studies suggested that patients with IBD are associated with the symptoms of severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue, and weight loss. Long-term persistent symptoms such as weight loss may be life-threatening.

If you have experienced some of the aforementioned symptoms, please make sure to check with your doctor to rule out the possibility.

The causes of IBD are unknown.  The alternation of the ratio of gut microbiota may be the major culprit in facilitating the onset of IBD.

Dr. Becker C, the lead scientist wrote, "The intestinal microbiota has important metabolic and host-protective functions. Conversely, to these beneficial functions, the intestinal microbiota is thought to play a central role in the etiopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), chronic inflammation of the gut mucosa".

Betacyanins are phytochemicals in the class of red and yellow indole-derived pigments, belonging to the group of Betalains, found abundantly in beets, chard, etc.

On finding a natural pigment for the prevention and treatment of colonic inflammation, researchers examined the effects of beetroot (Beta vulgaris var. Rubra) products and their major component betanin found in betacyanins in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

According to the tested assays, 

* Betanin at the concentration of 100 μM for 24 h increased DNA damage in IBD patients' neutrophils. In other words, betanin exhibited cytotoxic activity against the neutrophils isolated from the blood of patients with inflammatory bowel disease--ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD),  compared to those obtained in colon carcinoma-derived Caco-2 cells.

* Furthermore, betanin treatment in Caco-2 cells with H2O2 also caused a 4-fold increase of DNA strand breaks compared to untreated cells. More precisely, betanin elevated the expression of free radical H2O2 to cause cancer cell death.

* Moreover, pre-treatment with betanin was found to reduce DNA damage in healthy normal cells.

* Additonally, betanin also promoted the activity of procaspase and caspase pro-apoptotic activity to induce cancer cells apoptosis.

Based on the findings, Dr. the lead scientist said, "These results suggest that betanin may support mechanisms that lead to the release of ROS and apoptotic cell death. In this way, betanin may exert anti-inflammatory and potentially cancer preventive activity".

Taken altogether, betacyanins processed abundantly bioactive ingredient betanin may be considered a remedy for the prevention and treatment of liver steatosis, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of betacyanins in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) DNA damage and apoptosis in blood neutrophils of inflammatory bowel diseasepatients and in Caco-2 cells in vitro exposed to betanin by Zielińska-Przyjemska M1, Olejnik A2, Dobrowolska-Zachwieja A3, Łuczak M4, Baer-Dubowska W. (PubMed)
(2) The Intestinal Microbiota in Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Becker C1, Neurath MF1, Wirtz S. (PubMed)