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Melatonin alters amino acid metabolism and inflammatory responses in colitis mice

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Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic inflammatory dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract. This study explored the hypothesis that melatonin has beneficial functions in the mouse model of colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS), with a specific focus on the expression of intestinal inflammatory cytokines and the serum levels of amino acids. The results revealed that mice with melatonin supplementation had a reduction in weight loss and disease index induced by DSS treatment. Melatonin stifled the expression of colonic IL-17 in mice with DSS-induced colitis. Melatonin also lowered the serum levels of Asp, Ser, Met, and Leu (p < 0.05), but increased those of Glu and Cys (p < 0.05). Thus, melatonin treatment is promising and may function as a potential adjuvant therapy to alleviate the clinical symptoms of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

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Abbreviations

IBD:

Inflammatory bowel disease

DSS:

Dextran sodium sulfate

UC:

Ulcerative colitis

CD:

Crohn’s disease

GIT:

Gastrointestinal tract

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Changsha, 410125, Hunan, China

    Gang Liu, Qian Jiang, Shuai Chen, Wenkai Ren, Jie Yin, Kang Yao & Yulong Yin

  2. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, Hunan, China

    Jun Fang

  3. Animal Nutrition and Human Health Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China

    Yulong Yin

  4. College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Yulong Yin

Authors
  1. Gang Liu
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  2. Qian Jiang
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  3. Shuai Chen
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  4. Jun Fang
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  5. Wenkai Ren
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  6. Jie Yin
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  7. Kang Yao
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  8. Yulong Yin
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Contributions

GL, QJ, JF, WR, and YY conceived the experiment(s); GL, QJ, WR, SC, JY, and KY conducted the experiments; GL and SC analyzed the results. GL and WR prepared the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wenkai Ren or Kang Yao.

Ethics declarations

Ethical standards

The protocol for this study was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Permit Number: 201602-05) and it was conducted out in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Funding

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31772642, 31672457, 31702125, 31472107), the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hunan Province (2016JJ1015), International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (161343KYSB20160008), Key Programs of frontier scientific research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB127306), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0500504), Ministry of Agricultural of the People’s Republic of China (2015-Z64 and 2016-X47), Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Department (2016NK2101, 2016WK2008, and 2016TP2005), the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA2016101), the Chinese Academy of Sciences “Hundred Talent” award.

Conflict of interest

All co-authors have seen and agreed with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report.

Additional information

Handling Editors: C.-A.A. Hu, Y. Yin, Y. Hou, G. Wu, Y. Teng.

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Liu, G., Jiang, Q., Chen, S. et al. Melatonin alters amino acid metabolism and inflammatory responses in colitis mice. Amino Acids 49, 2065–2071 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2489-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2489-z

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