Abstract
BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex bowel disorder marked by recurrent abdominal pain and irregular stools. The condition is persistent and significantly affects the quality of life of patients. In China, 5.6%-11.5% of the population has IBS, with diarrheal IBS (IBS-D) comprising about 31.5% of the total. AIM: To investigate how human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) can alleviate the symptoms with the help of an IBS-D rat model. METHODS: Sixty specific pathogen-free-grade male Sprague-Dawley rats were acquired and divided into five groups: Control group, model group, and three hUC-MSC groups with different doses. The model group was induced using a combination of acetic acid and binding stress. We determined the body weight of the mice; analyzed their fecal characteristics, inflammatory factors, and intestinal tissue damage; and conducted intestinal flora analyses. RESULTS: The results showed that hUC-MSCs observably restored the dramatic weight loss in the rat model and also lowered the fecal water content to some extent. In addition, hUC-MSCs reduced the expression of inflammatory factors to alleviate the inflammatory response and increased the expression of intestinal barrier functional proteins to restore the colon injury by colonizing the colon tissue. In addition, hUC-MSCs were able to maintain the abundance and diversity of gut flora. CONCLUSION: Thus, hUC-MSCs can reduce the expression of inflammatory factors, improve the expression of intestinal barrier functional proteins, and maintain the abundance and diversity of intestinal flora in IBS-D by colonizing the colon tissue.