Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and BDNF

Gene Expression Analysis Determines BDNF's Role in IBS

In this study, Researchers used Neuromics'  i-Fect^TM Transfection Kit to deliver BDNF to determine effect on visceral hypersensitivity (VHS): J. H. Winston1 Q. Li1, S. K. Sarna1. Chronic prenatal stress epigenetically modifies spinal cord BDNF expression to induce sex-specific visceral hypersensitivity in offspring. Article first published online: 4 MAR 2014. Neurogastroenterology & Motility. DOI: 10.1111/nmo.12326. The Journal of Pain, Volume 14, Issue 11, November 2013, Pages 1485–1491 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2013.07.007

Intrathecal treatment with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) antagonists reduced VMR to colorectal distension (CRD) in female chronic prenatal stress (CPS)+HeICS rats. (A) Graph shows that intrathecal administration of BDNF antagonist trkBFc in female CPS rats significantly decreased VMR to CRD, 24 h following adult 29 HeICS (two-way repeated measures ANOVA found a significant main effect of treatment, F1,53 = 10.4, p = 0.015; post hoc tests found significant differences at 30, 40, 50, and 60 mmHg, n = 4). (B) Graph shows that intrathecal administration of BDNF siRNA in female CPS rats significantly decreased VMR to CRD, 24 h following adult 29 HeICS (two-way repeated measures ANOVA: treatment 9 pressure interaction, F1,77 = 3.49, p = 0.008, tukey post hoc tests found significance at 30 mmHg, p = 0.013 and at 40, 50 50, 80 mmHg, p < 0.001, n = 7 Ctr., n = 6 BDNF siRNA). (C) Western blot shows a significant decrease in spinal cord BDNF protein expression in rats treated with BDNF siRNA (*p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Chronic prenatal stress followed by a second exposure to HeICS in adult offspring exacerbated visceral hypersensitivity (VHS) greater in female offspring that persisted longer than in male offspring. Chronic prenatal stress up-regulated BDNF expression in the lumbar-sacral dorsal horn that correlated with the exacerbation of VHS in female, but not in male offspring by increasing RNA Pol II binding and histone H3 acetylation, and decreasing histone deacetylase 1 association with the core promoter of BDNF in female offspring.