Impact of the level of the intestinal short chain fatty acids in inflammatory bowel disease patients versus healthy subjects

The aim of this study was to determine the changes of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in feces of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients compared to healthy subjects. SCFAs such as pyruvic, lactic, formic, acetic, propionic, isobutyric and butyric acids were analyzed by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This study showed that the level of acetic, 162.0 μmol/g wet feces, butyric, 86.9 μmol/g wet feces, and propionic acids, 65.6 μmol/g wet feces, decreased remarkably in IBD fecal samples when compared with that of healthy individuals, 209.7, 176.0, and 93.3 μmol/g wet feces respectively. On the contrary, lactic and pyruvic acids showed higher levels in fecal samples of IBD than in healthy subjects. In the context of butyric acid level, this study also found that the molar ratio of butyric acid was higher than propionic acid in both fecal samples. This might be due to the high intake of starch from rice among Malaysian population. It was concluded that the level of SCFAs differ remarkably between fecal samples in healthy subjects and that in IBD patients providing evidence that SCFAs more likely play an important role in the pathogenesis of IBD.