Antioxidant tested as therapy for oesophagitis
Antioxidants should be considered as supplementary
therapy in the treatment and prevention of reflux oesophagitis, a new
study shows.
Previous studies have shown that mucosal damage
in reflux oesophagitis is mediated primarily by oxygen derived free radicals
and that DA-9601, an extract of the herb Artemisia asiatica, has
antioxidative and cytoprotective actions in models of gastric mucosal
damage in colitis.
Dr Tae-Young Oh, Dong-A Pharmaceutical Research
Institute, Yongin, Korea, and colleagues investigated whether the administration
of DA-9601 reduced the severity of experimentally-induced reflux oesophagitis.
Reflux oesophagitis was induced in 60 rats using
a surgical procedure. Fifteen of the rats were given no treatment and
the rest were assigned to receive either DA-9601 30mg/kg, DA-9601 100mg/kg
or ranitidine 10mg/kg, 30 minutes before the procedure. Oesophageal ulceration
developed in four out of 14 rats pretreated with DA-9601 30mg/kg and in
three out of 15 rats pretreated with DA-9601 100mg/kg. Ranitidine reduced
the extent of mucosal ulcerations but its protective effect was not as
prominent as that of DA-9601. In the group of the rats given no treatment,
80 per cent developed oesophageal ulcers.
The researchers conclude that oxygen-derived free
radicals seem to be important mediators in the generation of reflux oesophagitis
and that antioxidants should be considered as first line therapy. However,
because they could not exclude the useful role of anti-secretary medications,
they suggest that a combination of antioxidant and anti-secretory medications
(such as H2-receptor antagonists) is the treatment of choice
in the prevention and treatment of reflux oesophagitis. The study is published
in Gut (2001;49:364).
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