Internal medicine

Pathology

Biotechnology

In vivo

Disease

Epithelium

Biology

Caco-2

Tight junction

Goblet cell

Chemistry

Ecology

In vitro

Immunology

Mucus

Colitis

Occludin

Inflammation

Intestinal mucosa

Wound healing

Ulcerative colitis

Barrier function

Intestinal epithelium

Cell biology

Secretion

Biochemistry

Medicine

Scientific Reports

Natural polysaccharides have emerged as an important class of bioactive compounds due their beneficial biological effects. Here we investigated the protective and healing effects of rhamnogalacturonan (RGal) isolated from Acmella oleracea (L.) R.K. Jansen leaves in an experimental model of intestinal inflammation in mice and in heterogeneous human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (Caco-2). The findings demonstrated that RGal treatment for 7 days reduced the severity of DSS-induced colitis by protecting mice from weight loss, macroscopic damage and reduction of colon length. When compared to the DSS group, RGal also protected the colon epithelium and promoted the maintenance of mucosal enterocytes and mucus secreting goblet cells, in addition to conserving collagen homeostasis and increasing cell proliferation. In an in vitro barrier function assay, RGal reduced the cellular permeability after exposure to IL-1β, while decreasing IL-8 secretion and claudin-1 expression and preserving the distribution of occludin. Furthermore, we also observed that RGal accelerated the wound healing in Caco-2 epithelial cell line. In conclusion, RGal ameliorates intestinal barrier function in vivo and in vitro and may represent an attractive and promising molecule for the therapeutic management of ulcerative colitis.

Rhamnogalacturonan, a chemically-defined polysaccharide, improves intestinal barrier function in DSS-induced colitis in mice and human Caco-2 cells