Thiol-disulfide homeostasis in irritable bowel syndrome.

The etiopathogenesis and pathophysiological mechanism of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is not fully known. In this study, evaluating dynamic thiol-disulfide homeostasis (TDH) in patients with IBS was aimed. A total of 92 people, 46 IBS patients and 46 healthy sex and aged-matched volunteers, were included in the study. Thiol/disulfide parameters in serum were measured in all cases, and the two groups were compared. Disulfide levels (21.9 ± 5.0 µmol/L vs. 19.4 ± 4.2 µmol/L, respectively; p < 0.001), disulfide/native thiol (5.7%  ± 1.2% vs. 4.9% ± 0.8%, p < 0.001, respectively) and disulfide/total thiol ratio (5.1% ± 0.9% vs. 4.5% ± 0.7%, respectively, p < 0.001) were found to be higher in IBS patients, and native thiol/total thiol ratio (89.8% ± 1.9%, 90.6% ± 1.9%, p < 0.001, respectively) was found to be lower in IBS patients. In our study, it was shown that TDH is impaired in IBS, which is an important result supporting studies showing that oxidative stress plays a role in IBS. On the other hand, it is thought that this study will contribute to the literature in terms of being the first study evaluating TDH in adult IBS.