Corticotropin-releasing factor increases ascending colon volume after a fructose test meal in healthy humans: a randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

In this study the researchers investigated the effect of an intravenous injection of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) on fructose malabsorption and the resulting volume of water in the small bowel.

Why It Was Studied

Poorly absorbed fermentable carbohydrates can provoke irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms by escaping absorption in the small bowel and being rapidly fermented in the colon in some susceptible subjects.

IBS patients often are anxious and stressed, and stress accelerates small bowel transit, which may exacerbate malabsorption.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 10 subjects were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, both men and women.

The researchers performed a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study of CRF compared with saline injection in 11 male and 10 female healthy subjects, examining the effect on the malabsorption of a 40-g fructose test meal and its transit through the gut, which was assessed by serial MRI and breath hydrogen measurement.

Orocecal transit was assessed with the use of the lactose [(13)C]ureide breath test and the adrenal response to CRF was assessed by serial salivary cortisol measurements.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got ACTH (Corticotropin) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the subjects and researchers unaware of who received ACTH (Corticotropin).

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the ACTH (Corticotropin) group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the subjects took both ACTH (Corticotropin) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Intravenous, Body Mass Index, Breath Tests, Colon, Ascending, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Fructose and Gastric Emptying.

The authors tagged it with the keywords FODMAPs, corticotropin-releasing factor, irritable bowel syndrome, magnetic resonance imaging and malabsorption.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) in 10 subjects.

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.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.