Letter: 1‐kestose, the smallest fructooligosaccharide component, protection for mild to moderate ulcerative colitis patients

Abstract

Editors,We read with great interest the publication by Ikegami et al. 1 Their study found that oral 1-kestose was well tolerated and provided clinical improvement for patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC) through modulation of the gut microbiome. This study is important and interesting. We nonetheless have some concerns regarding AUTH O R CO NTR I B UTI O N Schen peng: Conceptualization (lead); data curation (lead); resources (lead); software (lead); supervision (lead); writing -review and editing (lead).chen fuchao: Project administration (supporting); resources (supporting).

Letter: 1‐kestose, the smallest fructooligosaccharide component, protection for mild to moderate ulcerative colitis patients—authors’ reply

“…

We thank Dr. Chen and Dr. Chen for their comments regarding our study on the efficacy and safety of 1-kestose for patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). 1,2 Regarding the authors' first point, the maltose used as placebo in this study is approximately 20 kcal/5 g. As the authors point out, we agree that long-term administration is undesirable because it leads to obesity and glucose intolerance, but this study was conducted for a short period of 2 months, and hence, we believe that the effect would be limited.Furthermore, in this study, each product was packaged individually as a single dose in an opaque package and the entire product kit was also packaged in such a way that the contents are not revealed.Participants were allocated only one product, either 1-kestose or placebo (maltose). Importantly, they could not compare the weights of the two products.

…”

“…We thank Dr. Chen and Dr. Chen for their comments regarding our study on the efficacy and safety of 1-kestose for patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). 1,2 Regarding the authors' first point, the maltose used as placebo in this study is approximately 20 kcal/5 g. As the authors point out, we agree that long-term administration is undesirable because it leads to obesity and glucose intolerance, but this study was conducted for a short period of 2 months, and hence, we believe that the effect would be limited.…”