Cannabinoid-2 receptor agonists may be useful in treating intestinal motility disorders.

CB2 receptor may exert an important inhibitory effect in stress-induced colonic hypermotility by modulating NO synthesis through p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling. AM1241 could be used as a potential drug to treat disorders with colonic hypermotility.

A substantial proportion of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have symptoms despite medical treatment. With the present study we found that sacral nerve modulation significantly reduces pain and daily bowel movements for severe diarrhea-predominant and mixed IBS.

This study demonstrated the esophageal motility differences in the liquid and solid bolus swallows with high-resolution manometry in a large cohort of healthy subjects and provided the normative values which are needed to set up the modified Chicago classification for both liquid and solid bolus swallows in Chinese population in the future.

The role of low-grade inflammation and mucosal immune activation in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is controversial and remains poorly understood. We used multivariate analysis of the mucosal gene expression to identify a subset of patients with evidence of increased immune activation in the colon descendens, but not in the rectum. However, the clinical characteristics of the immuno-active subgroup did not differ from the rest of the IBS patient cohort, therefore suggesting no direct relationship between mucosal low-grade inflammation and symptoms in IBS.

We compared estimates of gastric accommodation (GA) with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to measurements based on intragastric meal distribution immediately post-meal ingestion (IMD⁰) in 108 diabetics with upper gastrointestinal (UGI) symptoms who had undergone gastric emptying of solids (GE) by scintigraphy and GA measurements by SPECT. There were no significant differences in total gastric area or the IMD⁰ parameters (% area or % radioactive counts) between those with and without (UGI) symptoms except for fullness and satiety. IMD⁰ is not significantly correlated with GA measurement by SPECT.

Bisphenol A is commonly used in the production of plastics and has multidirectional, negative effects on the living organisms. It may also affect the enteric nervous system (ENS) located in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract. Enteric neurons express many active substances, which regulate majority of intestinal activities not only in physiological conditions abut also under the impact of pathological factors.

Electroacupuncture (EA) ameliorated visceral hypersensitivity in colon-sensitized model probably via decreasing the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines released by mast cell which were decreased when the TLR4 expression in the colonic tissue was downregulated by EA.

This study provides evidence that ginger constituent 6-shogaol directly activates vagal afferent C-fiber peripheral gastrointestinal endings. This activation leads to desensitization to subsequent application of 6-shogaol but not subsequent esophageal mechanical distension. Further investigation is required to establish a possible contribution in its anti-emetic effects.

In some patients with clinical features of achalasia, impaired LES relaxation is only demonstrable using additional provocative test(s) (free drinking and solid swallows during manometry, barium esophagogram), and not with standard manometric testing. A cohort of such patients were treated with achalasia therapy and exhibited a favorable response, equivalent to achalasia diagnosed in the conventional fashion. Additional provocative tests should be added to standard manometric testing to ensure optimum sensitivity of achalasia diagnosis

Symptom management of gastroparesis is challenging, due to an incomplete understanding and limited therapeutic options. About 30% of patients eventually need enteral feeding. Following a stepwise treatment approach (including diet and prokinetics, Gastric Rest, PEG-J) in gastroparesis, adequate symptom response was reached in 86% of all patients, whereas weight gain was achieved in all patients, independent of symptom response.

A test-retest repeatability study was performed on 80 healthy volunteers comparing the repeatability of high-resolution anal manometry (HRAM) with conventional station pull-through manometry (CM). We found HRAM to be a valid technique with comparable repeatability to CM. HRAM measurements differ considerably to CM, and a new set of normal values must be used.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of bowel symptoms predating a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) in MS patients with bowel symptoms. Nearly a third of patients had a bowel symptom prior to the first demyelinating event associated with MS with constipation being the most prevalent. Bowel symptoms may characterize a prodromal phase for multiple sclerosis.

Brain-gut interactions may contribute to psychiatric symptoms and comorbidities in inflammatory bowel diseases. This study provides first evidence of altered global and regional structural connectivity in patients with quiescent Crohn's disease. These findings could represent neural correlates of altered emotional processing of visceral stimuli and a predisposition toward anxiety or depression.