SEVILLE, Spain—Adding resveratrol to the diet can quiet the symptoms of chronic intestinal inflammation, according to a new Spanish study (Eur J Pharmacol. 2010 May 10;633(1-3):78-84).
Researchers at the University of Seville investigated the effect of dietary resveratrol on chronic dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Six-week-old mice were randomized into two dietary groups: one standard diet and the other enriched with resveratrol at 20 mg/kg of diet. After 30 days, mice were exposed to 3 percent DSS for five days developing acute colitis that progressed to severe chronic inflammation after 21 days.
Results demonstrated the resveratrol group experienced significantly lower signs of colitis than those that did not take the supplements, including loss of body weight, diarrhea and rectal bleeding . Moreover, the totality of resveratrol-fed animals survived and finished the treatment while animals fed with standard diet showed a mortality of 40 percent.
Three weeks after DSS removal, the health benefits of reseveratrol could still be seen. The rats fed the supplement experienced substantial reductions of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-1beta and an increase of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Also, resveratrol reduced prostaglandin E synthase-1 (PGES-1), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) proteins expression, via downregulation of p38, a mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signal pathway.
Ulcerative colitis is a nonspecific inflammatory disorder characterized by oxidative and nitrosative stress, leucocyte infiltration and upregulation of inflammatory mediators. Resveratrol is a polyphenolic compound found in grapes and wine, with multiple pharmacological actions, mainly anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumour and immunomodulatory activities.