A dietary intervention may help heal intestinal damage from radiation or chemotherapy, a study in mice suggests.
A diet rich in the amino acid cysteine turns on an immune signaling pathway that helps stem cells to regrow new tissue to line the intestines, researchers reported in Nature.
High cysteine foods include pork, beef, chicken, fish, lentils, oatmeal, eggs, low-fat yogurt, sunflower seeds, and cheese.
In their study, the researchers began by feeding mice a diet high in one of 20 different amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Among these amino acids, cysteine had the most dramatic effects on stem cells and progenitor cells, which are immature cells that can differentiate into adult intestinal cells.
Further experiments revealed that when cells lining the intestine absorb cysteine from digested food, they convert it into molecules called CoA, which are then absorbed by immune cells called CD8 T cells. This stimulates the T cells to produce a protein called IL-22 that plays an important role in intestinal stem cell regeneration.
"Once activated, those IL-22-releasing T cells are primed to help combat any kind of injury that could occur within the intestinal lining," the researchers said.
Also, in work that has not been published yet, they found that a high-cysteine diet had a regenerative effect following treatment with a chemotherapy drug called 5-fluorouracil. This drug, which is used to treat colon and pancreatic cancers, can also damage the intestinal lining.
If future research shows similar results in humans, then delivering elevated quantities of cysteine might dampen some chemotherapy or radiation-induced injuries to the intestinal lining, study leader Omer Yilmaz of MIT said in a statement.
"The beauty here is we're not using a synthetic molecule, we're exploiting a natural dietary compound," Yilmaz said.
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