Food Compounds Associated With Disease Activity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Diet plays a modulatory role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but specific relevant dietary factors have yet to be identified. To advance our understanding, we performed multivariate analyses of food compound intakes using dietary data from an IBD cohort.

We used dietary and disease status data from IBD patients at the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Intake levels for 768 compounds from 135 patients were calculated. Using random forest analyses, we explored associations between compound intake and IBD activity by comparing patients who experienced flares (n = 41) with those who remained in remission during follow-up. We assessed the potential biological relevance of the most significant compounds (n = 35) by examining literature on IBD, gut health, or immunomodulation.

Random forest models showed specificities and negative predictive values up to 77% and 79%, respectively. The intakes of the 35 top-ranked compounds were primarily positively associated with IBD remission (n = 29). Most of these were fatty acids (n = 24). Other compounds positively associated with remission were 4-hydroxyproline, ethanol, vanillin, heptadecanoyl carnitine, and haem iron. For 11 of the 35 compounds, unambiguous effects on IBD or the gut were available in literature, with 7 of these compounds being consistent with our findings. For 11 compounds, immunomodulatory effects were reported in literature. Thirteen compounds lacked relevant literature on effects, highlighting them as candidates for further research.

We identified several compounds that may play a modulatory role in IBD. Further research is needed to clarify associations found in our study and validate their biological significance.