Prebiotic treatment in experimental colitis reduces the risk of colitic cancer

Germinated barley foodstuff (GBF) is a prebiotic product that reduces colonic mucosal inflammation and the clinical symptoms observed in ulcerative colitis (UC). The risk of contracting colorectal cancer is higher in patients with UC than in that of the general population. The aim of this study is to apply this prebiotic approach to control chronic colitis and to reduce the incidence of colitic cancer.

Repeated and intermitted dextran sulfate sodium administration to male Sprague-Dawley rats was used for the chronic and subacute colitis models. GBF was added as the diet (10% w/v). The incidence of adenomatous high-grade dysplasia, and pathophysiological observations, including the proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) labeling index, and clinical score, cecal organic acid profile, and the accompanying β-glucosidase activity were determined.

In the chronic phase, the incidence of adenomatous dysplasia was only confirmed in the control group, and the GBF group had no dysplasia in the entire colon; the stratified squamous epithelium area of GBF was significantly lower than that of the controls. GBF treatment significantly lowered the cecal succinate content and significantly increased β-glucosidase activity compared to the controls. In addition, colonic mucosal inflammatory damage was comparable between the two groups, while the PCNA labeling index of the colonic mucosa in the GBF group was significantly lower than that of the control group. However, in the subacute phase, the mucosal damage score of GBF was significantly attenuated, and the PCNA labeling index of the colonic mucosa in the GBF group was significantly higher than that of the control group.

This preliminary study demonstrated that GBF effectively prevents colitis-related dysplasia and inflammatory change in chronic and subacute colitis models by modulating the intestinal environment as a prebiotic. This prebiotic might contribute to the prevention of mucosal damage, to show different proliferative effects on the epithelium in the regeneration and steady states.