The effect of corticotropin-release hormone on duodenal permeability and immune activation in healthy volunteers in a double-blind placebo-controlled study

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether CRH administration alters duodenal permeability and immune activation in healthy volunteers (HVs).

Why It Was Studied

Moreover, eosinophil-derived CRH has been implicated in mast cell activation.

An intravenous bolus of 100-µg CRH or placebo was administered in HVs in a crossover, double-blind, randomized manner.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

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

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 participants and researchers unaware of who received ACTH (Corticotropin).

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

Each person switched between ACTH (Corticotropin) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Supernatant was assessed for eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN), tryptase, and chymase.

What Was Measured

Two hours later, a gastroscopy was performed to measure permeability in Ussing chambers and to count mast cells and eosinophils on duodenal biopsies.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Duodenum, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Mast Cells, Permeability, Eosinophils, Healthy Volunteers and Chymases.

The authors tagged it with the keywords CRH, disorders of gut-brain interaction and immune activation.

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).

The publication is from 2025 (American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology), a journal based in United States.

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