Restrictive diets have a beneficial impact on dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis in male mice

Researchers exposed mice with mild chronic colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate to one of four feeding conditions: unrestricted control feeding, caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, or a fasting-mimicking diet. Samples were analysed for markers of inflammation, gut permeability, intestinal morphology, cytokine and inflammatory gene expression, bile acids, and taurine and its conjugates.

The authors reported that the diets reduced the colitis-driven increases in spleen weight and myeloperoxidase activity, and that the diets influenced occludin levels, small intestine morphology and gene expression mainly in the mucosa of the proximal colon. They reported that the diets did not reverse the increased gut permeability or the thickening of the colon muscularis externa. They reported modest changes in intestinal bile acids and strong effects on taurine and its conjugates. They described the three diets as having very similar impacts and said the fasting-mimicking diet had the most consistent beneficial impact.

This is an animal study in mice with chemically induced colitis, not a study in people and not a study of Prolon. Three different restrictive diets were tested alongside each other and the authors report that their effects were similar, so the findings concern restrictive feeding in general as much as any one diet. The outcomes are tissue and gene markers in mice, and two of the measures did not respond to any of the diets.