High-fat enteral nutrition controls intestinal inflammation and improves intestinal motility after peritoneal air exposure

Background: Peritoneal air exposure is a common phenomenon in abdominal surgery, but long-term exposure could induce intestinal inflammatory responses, resulting in delayed recovery of gastrointestinal motility after surgery. High-fat enteral nutrition has been reported to ameliorate inflammation in many diseases. In the present study, we investigated whether high-fat enteral nutrition could control intestinal inflammation and improve intestinal motility after peritoneal air exposure.

Methods: Male adult rats were administrated saline, low-fat enteral nutrition, or high-fat enteral nutrition via gavage before and after peritoneal air exposure for 3 h. Control rats underwent anesthesia without laparotomy and received saline. Intestinal motility was assessed 24 h after surgery by charcoal transport assay; systemic inflammation was assessed by analyzing serum levels of tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-10; and intestinal inflammation was assessed by analyzing myeloperoxidase activity and concentrations and gene expression of tumor necrosis factor α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10 in the intestinal tissue.

Results: Peritoneal air exposure decreased intestinal motility significantly compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The systemic and intestinal inflammatory parameters were also much higher in the peritoneal air exposure groups than in the control group. Both low-fat and high-fat enteral nutrition increased intestinal motility and reduced systemic and intestinal inflammatory parameter levels to different degrees. However, high-fat enteral nutrition significantly improved the negative alterations in these biochemical parameters compared with low-fat enteral nutrition (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: These results suggest that high-fat enteral nutrition might be able to control intestinal inflammation and improve intestinal motility after peritoneal air exposure. Thus, the perioperative administration of high-fat enteral nutrition may be a promising treatment to enhance the recovery of intestinal motility after surgery.