What is it about?
Visceral hypersensitivity has been recognized as the core of irritable bowel syndrome. It refers that patients have a lower pain threshold with balloon distension of the bowel (visceral hyperalgesia), or they have increased sensitivity even to normal intestinal function. Obesity, a worldwide problem, plays a contributing role in visceral hypersensitivity because it can induce longlasting inflammation.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that obesity may cause abdiminal pain via: 1)Adipose tissue secretes various inflammatory mediators, causing intestinal hyperpermeability and nerve endings activation.2)Obesity and gastrointestinal microbiota could affect each other, and microbial metabolites can increase sensitivity of the colon.3)Vitamin D deficiency contributes to both fat accumulation and disruption of the intestinal mucosal barrier.4)Brain-gut axis may be another bridge from obesity to visceral hypersensitivity.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it has co-authors with whom I have had long standing collaborations. We togetherly work on functional gasrtointestinal disease.
Yanping Wu
Xi'an Jiaotong University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The interaction between obesity and visceral hypersensitivity, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, December 2022, Wiley, DOI: 10.1111/jgh.16083.
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