Medium-chain triglyceride-rich enteral nutrition is more effective than low-fat enteral nutrition in rat colitis, but is equal in enteritis

Background. Although enteral nutrition (EN) therapy for Crohn's disease has been confirmed to be as effective as steroid therapy, the precise mechanis m responsible for the effects of EN remains unclear, although some of the t herapeutic effects of EN are believed to be due to a low dietary fat conten t. In order to elucidate the influence of fat in EN, it is important to inv estigate not only the quantity of fat, but also the source of the fat. Meth ods. We compared two enteral nutritional formulae: Elental (Ajinomoto) (ele mental diet; ED), which contains only 1.5% fat, provided as long-chain trig lycerides (LCT), versus Twinline (Snow Brand Milk Products) (TL), which con tains a high percentage of fat (20.4%), provided mainly as medium-chain tri glycerides (MCT). These formulae were tested on rat enteritis and rat colit is induced by trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Results. Both ED and TL reduced the manifestations of enteritis. TL had a stronger anti-inflammato ry effect than ED for colitis. TL also had nutritional advantages as compar ed with ED, as shown by the total serum protein in the TL group being signi ficantly higher than that in the ED group. Conclusion. The results indicate that intraluminal MCT is suitable: as a fat energy source during intestina l inflammation in rats. We suggest that Twinline may be more useful to impr ove nutritional status and to reduce the mucosal inflammation in rat coliti s, but that Twinline is equal in effect to Elental for rat enteritis.