[Treatment of gut-derived endotoxemia with lactulose. An experimental study]

Endotoxemia plays an important role in the origination and development of many dangerous clinical diseases, for which there has been little medication so far. To determine whether lactulose has an effect on endotoxemia, we treated experimental, gut-derived endotoxemia using lactulose in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that 55 mg lactulose inactivated the activity of 0.01 mg endotoxin on limulus lysate in vitro, suggesting that lactulose may have a direct anti-endotoxin effect. In vivo study in rats showed that blood endotoxin level was significantly decreased from 78.61 +/- 6.54 pg/ml to 20.26 +/- 2.38 pg/ml (P less than 0.01), and liver damage significantly reduced after lactulose treatment. It is suggested that lactulose can prevent absorbtion of endotoxin from gut and may have an effect on gut-derived endotoxemia. The mechanism of lactulose for treating endotoxemia is discussed.