It is reported that the incidences of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing worldwide.

Serine, which is one of the major antioxidant in mammalian, could be used for the biosynthesis of glutathione. Previous studies showed that serine could improve homocysteine metabolism, promote optimal T cell proliferation, and alleviate oxidative stress. These results suggested that serine may have beneficial effects on inflammatory response.

Researchers in the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA)  of the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated the effects of serine on inflammatory response and barrier dysfunction in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced intestinal inflammation.

In their experiment, all mice were randomly assigned into two groups and fed with either a basal diet or a basal diet supplemented with 1% serine (wt/vol) for 14 days. Then they were intraperitoneally injected with 0.5 mg/kg LPS and to be analysed after 2 hours.

The researchers found that pretreatment with serine prevented the LPS-induced inflammatory response and oxidative stress, as well as maintained intestinal barrier function and permeability.

Moreover, they elucidated that serine may prevent LPS-induced intestinal damage by improving glutathione synthesis and AMPK activity in a p53-dependent manner.

"Our results suggested that serine could serve as a potential prophylactic agent to prevent the development of IBD, and our next step is to investigate whether long-term supplementation with serine has any side effects in animal model with IBD" said ZHOU Xihong, a researcher in ISA.

The study entitled "Serine prevents LPS-induced intestinal inflammation and barrier damage via p53-dependent glutathione synthesis and AMPK activation" was published in Journal of Functional Foods.

 This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.