Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2023; 29(21): 3269-3279
Published online Jun 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i21.3269
Effects of ethanol and sex on propionate metabolism evaluated via a faster 13C-propionate breath test in rats
Yosuke Sasaki, Naoyuki Kawagoe, Tsunehiko Imai, Yoshihisa Urita
Yosuke Sasaki, Naoyuki Kawagoe, Tsunehiko Imai, Yoshihisa Urita, Department of General Medicine and Emergency Care, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Author contributions: Sasaki Y and Urita Y coordinated the study; Sasaki Y, Kawagoe N, Imai T, and Urita Y performed the experiments; Sasaki Y and Urita Y acquired and analyzed the data; Sasaki Y and Urita Y interpreted the data; and Sasaki Y and Urita Y wrote the manuscript; All authors approved the final version of the article.
Supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grant, No. JP21K18089.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Toho University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board, No. 21-51-496.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at yousuke.sasaki@med.toho-u.ac.jp.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yosuke Sasaki, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Department of General Medicine and Emergency Care, Toho University School of Medicine, 6-11-1 Omori-Nishi, Ota-Ku, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan. yousuke.sasaki@med.toho-u.ac.jp
Received: February 2, 2023
Peer-review started: February 2, 2023
First decision: March 8, 2023
Revised: March 13, 2023
Accepted: May 6, 2023
Article in press: May 6, 2023
Published online: June 7, 2023
Processing time: 119 Days and 6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Alcoholism is a risk factor for vitamin B12 (VB12) deficiency. The 13C-propionate breath test (PBT) is a diagnostic modality for VB12 deficiency, but requires 2 h for completion. We applied a faster PBT to evaluate propionate metabolism using an ethanol-fed rat model. After 13C-propionate administration, the 13CO2/12CO2 isotope ratio of gas collected every 5 min for 60 min was measured using infrared isotope spectrometry. The Δ13CO2 peak occurred within 30 min. Ethanol-fed males showed marked propionate metabolism without associated liver injury. This study demonstrates the potential of the faster PBT to evaluate propionate metabolism under various clinical conditions.