Pathophysiologic Findings of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in China

Abstract

The mechanism of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is still incompletely understood in the world although large amount of investigations have been carried out on it. There are many studies on the pathophysiology of IBS in China, which has huge amount of population suffering from IBS with special ethnicity and culture, including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We collected the literatures to show the results and discuss whether there were any differences in the pathophysiologic findings between China and other countries, whether there were any differences among different subtypes and how the pathophysiology correlated with the manifestations of patients. Gene polymorphism, disturbances of gastrointestinal motility, visceral hypersensitivity, intestinal infection and inflammation, psychological disturbances, food hypersensitivity and intolerance, and altered gut microflora were reviewed in this paper. Some conflicting outcomes between China and other countries were noted although most of them were similar.

Effects of Fengliao-Changweikang in Diarrhea-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome Rats and Its Mechanism Involving Colonic Motility

“…33 A number of animal experiments also demonstrated that hypertensive contractions of intestinal smooth muscle may be important in producing main IBS-D symptoms. [34][35][36][37][38] Similar increased colonic basic tension and motility were noted in the current rodent study ( Fig. 2A).…”

Visceral and somatic hypersensitivity, autonomic cardiovascular dysfunction and low-grade inflammation in a subset of irritable bowel syndrome patients

“…A number of IBS, especially D-IBS, patients have a history of acute gastroenteritis (Zhong and Hou, 2012;Liu et al, 2012). Inflammation, even low-grade, can send many systemic and local signals, which may cause changes in the intestine (such as the dysfunction of digestion and absorption).…”

“…IBS is common in Western countries, where the incidence is up to 20%. In recent years, the morbidity in Asian countries has been rising year by year, and has now nearly reached that of Western countries (Zhong and Hou, 2012;Song et al, 2012;Omagari et al, 2013). Without biological markers, the diagnosis of IBS depends mainly on the patient's symptoms.…”

Associations between IL‐1RA polymorphisms and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth among patients with irritable bowel syndrome from India

“…In response to gastrointestinal infection, the degree and duration of inflammatory response of the tissue are dependent not only on the nature of infective organism, but also on pro and anti‐inflammatory make‐up and T regulatory response of the host, which are genetically determined . Cytokines have major effector and regulatory role in the mucosal immune and inflammatory response, persistence of which may result in development of hyper‐algesia, hyper‐tonia, and hyper‐contractility of the gut muscles, which are important in pathogenesis of IBS …”

“…6 Cytokines have major effector and regulatory role in the mucosal immune and inflammatory response, persistence of which may result in development of hyper-algesia, hyper-tonia, and hyper-contractility of the gut muscles, which are important in pathogenesis of IBS. 5,[7][8][9] Pro-and anti-inflammatory molecular balance determines degree of gut inflammation. Interleukin-1 a and b (IL-1a and IL-1b, respectively) are pro-inflammatory cytokines, which play major role in host defense against infection and infestation.…”