Efficacy of zinc-carnosine chelate compound, Polaprezinc, enemas in patients with ulcerative colitis

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Carnosine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic, relapsing and remitting intestinal inflammatory disorder.

This study focused on Polaprezinc (PZ), N-(3-aminopropionyl)-L-histidinato zinc, which accelerates ulcer healing through actions such as prostaglandin-independent cytoprotection and antioxidative activity.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 28 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

All patients received usual induction therapy.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Carnosine study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

In this single-blind Carnosine study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Carnosine could be set against what happens without it.

Clinical symptoms, endoscopic findings and histological findings were evaluated at entry and one week later.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anti-Ulcer Agents, Carnosine, Colitis, Ulcerative, Colon, Descending, Colon, Sigmoid, Colonoscopy and Enema.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study of Carnosine in 28 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2014 (Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Carnosine compound page, all human trials.