Background: Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic inflammatory condition associated with damage to the intestinal mucosal barrier. Supplementation of yacon tubers has been known to have positive effect on intestinal health. Therefore, we conducted the present study to investigate the effect of yacon tuber powder on Th1 activation pathway by evaluating IFN-γ levels and the number of goblet cells in the colon of colitis mouse models.
Methods: Thirty BALB/c mice were divided into five groups: 1, control group (G1) and 2-5, TNBS-induced colitis groups (GII-GV). Yacon powder was given to three of the TNBS-induced colitis groups with the doses of 0.165 g/30 g BW (GIII), 0.331 g/30 g body weight (BW; GIV), and 0.662 g/30 g BW (GV) for 14 days. IFN-γ levels were assessed using ELISA, while number of goblet cells was calculated based on histological observation.
Results: Significantly lower IFN-γ levels was observed in GV compared to colitis group (GII) (p = 0.007). GV also showed significantly higher number of goblet cells per 100 epithelial cells in 20 crypts (p = 0.000) than GII.
Conclusion: The administration of yacon powder at a dose of 0.662 g/30 g BW could decrease IFN-γ levels and improve the healing of intestinal mucosa in colitis mouse models by increasing the number of goblet cells.
Keywords: Anti-Inflammatory; Colitis; Goblet cells; IFN-γ; Supplementation.