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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Analyzing Beneficial Effects of Nutritional Supplements on Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Functions During Experimental Colitis
Published on: January 5, 2017
Effects of mesalamine on the hsp72 stress response in rat IEC-18 intestinal epithelial cells
G C Burress1, M W Musch, D A Jurivich
1Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Center, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Background & Aims:
Mesalamine has many effects and is commonly used for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. Because sodium salicylate, a related compound, modulates the heat shock protein (hsp72) response in nonepithelial cells, the possibility that mesalamine confers cell protection by increasing intestinal epithelial hsp72 expression was examined.
Methods:
Rat intestinal IEC-18 cells were treated with 0.3-3 mmol/L mesalamine and thermally stressed (39 degrees C-42 degrees C) for 23 minutes. The effects of mesalamine on basal expression and the threshold and time course of hsp72 thermal induction were determined.
Results:
Although mesalamine had no effects on the basal hsp72 expression or its thermal activation threshold in IEC-18 cells, it accelerated and augmented thermal induction of hsp72 within the first 2 hours of exposure. This was associated with a transient increase in heat shock factor-heat shock element binding and enhanced cellular protection against oxidant-induced injury. In contrast, both mesalamine and sodium salicylate have been shown to lower the thermal induction threshold but not to enhance the hsp72 response in HeLa cells.
Conclusions:
Mesalamine augments thermal induction of the intestinal epithelial hsp72 expression in a manner that differs from that in nonintestinal epithelial cells. This effect is accompanied by increased cellular protection against oxidant injury.

