Impacts of long-term enteral nutrition on clinical and endoscopic disease activities and mucosal cytokines during remission in patients with Crohn's disease: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND

Long-term enteral nutrition may maintain clinical and endoscopic remission in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the impacts of long-term enteral nutrition on clinical and endoscopic disease activities and mucosal tissue cytokines in patients with quiescent CD.

METHODS

Forty patients with CD who achieved clinical remission were included. Of these, 20 received continuous elemental diet (Elental) infusion during the nighttime and a low-fat diet during the daytime (EN group) and 20 received neither nutritional therapy nor food restriction (non-EN group). With these regimens, all 40 patients were monitored for 1 year. Further, ileocolonoscopy was performed at entry, at 6 and 12 months, and mucosal biopsies were taken for cytokine assays.

RESULTS

On an intention-to-treat basis, 5 patients (25%) in the EN group and 13 (65%) in the non-EN group had a clinical relapse during the 1-year observation (P = 0.03). The mean endoscopic inflammation (EI) scores were not significantly different between the groups at both entry and 6 months, but at 12 months EI scores were significantly higher in the non-EN group than in the EN group (P = 0.04). Additionally, the mucosal tissue interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha levels significantly increased with time in the non-EN group (entry versus 12 months, IL-1beta, P = 0.02; IL-6, P = 0.002; TNF-alpha, P = 0.001). In the EN group these cytokines did not show a significant increase.

CONCLUSIONS

Long-term enteral nutrition in patients with quiescent CD has a clear suppressive effect on clinical and endoscopic disease activities and the mucosal inflammatory cytokine levels.