Published online Dec 28, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i48.8465
Peer-review started: June 6, 2017
First decision: June 22, 2017
Revised: October 31, 2017
Accepted: November 28, 2017
Article in press: November 28, 2017
Published online: December 28, 2017
To provide new insights in treatment of colitis and ischemia and reperfusion in rats using stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157.
Medication [BPC 157, L-NAME, L-arginine (alone/combined), saline] was bath at the blood deprived colon segment. During reperfusion, medication was BPC 157 or saline. We recorded (USB microscope camera) vessel presentation through next 15 min of ischemic colitis (IC-rats) or reperfusion (removed ligations) (IC + RL-rats); oxidative stress as MDA (increased (IC- and IC + RL-rats)) and NO levels (decreased (IC-rats); increased (IC + RL-rats)) in colon tissue. IC + OB-rats [IC-rats had additional colon obstruction (OB)] for 3 d (IC + OB-rats), then received BPC 157 bath.
Commonly, in colon segment (25 mm, 2 ligations on left colic artery and vein, 3 arcade vessels within ligated segment), in IC-, IC + RL-, IC + OB-rats, BPC 157 (10 μg/kg) bath (1 mL/rat) increased vessel presentation, inside/outside arcade interconnections quickly reappeared, mucosal folds were preserved and the pale areas were small and markedly reduced. BPC 157 counteracted worsening effects induced by L-NAME (5 mg) and L-arginine (100 mg). MDA- and NO-levels were normal in BPC 157 treated IC-rats and IC + RL-rats. In addition, on day 10, BPC 157-treated IC + OB-rats presented almost completely spared mucosa with very small pale areas and no gross mucosal defects; the treated colon segment was of normal diameter, and only small adhesions were present.
BPC 157 is a fundamental treatment that quickly restores blood supply to the ischemically injured area and rapidly activates collaterals. This effect involves the NO system.
Core tip: We rescued rat ischemic colitis. The gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157, which has been used in clinical trials for ulcerative colitis, exerted rapid cytoprotective endothelium rescue against the disabled left colic artery and vein after blood deprivation via two ligations and during reperfusion (ligations removed). By bypassing obstructions, quickly rescuing blood supply, rapidly activating collaterals, and restoring arcade interconnections, as a new integrative beneficial effect, BPC 157 prevented the occurrence of pale lesions without mucosal folds and normalized the levels of NO and MDA, two oxidative stress markers, in tissues. BPC 157 showed effectiveness over the NO-system background, immobilized (L-NAME + L-arginine), (over)stimulated (L-arginine) or blocked (L-NAME). Likewise, later application of BPC 157 in a bath treatment to rats with pertinently obstructed vessels that underwent additional colon obstruction for three days produced a similar beneficial effect.