Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 6, 2020; 8(11): 2081-2091
Published online Jun 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i11.2081
Isoflavones and inflammatory bowel disease
Ze-Yu Wu, Li-Xuan Sang, Bing Chang
Ze-Yu Wu, Bing Chang, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Li-Xuan Sang, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Wu ZY wrote the manuscript; Sang LX and Chang B participated in the critical revision of the manuscript; all the authors approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Innovative Talent Support Program of the Institution of Higher Learning in Liaoning Province, No. 2018-478; and Innovative Talents of Science and Technology Support Program of Young and Middle People of Shenyang, No. RC170446.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bing Chang, PhD, Associate Professor, Chief Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, No. 155, Nanjing North Street, Heping District, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China. cb000216@163.com
Received: January 2, 2020
Peer-review started: January 2, 2020
First decision: February 19, 2020
Revised: March 27, 2020
Accepted: April 24, 2020
Article in press: April 24, 2020
Published online: June 6, 2020
Processing time: 157 Days and 13.8 Hours
Abstract

Isoflavones constitute a class of plant hormones including genistein, daidzein, glycitein, formononetin, biochanin A, and irilone, and the major source of human intake is soybeans. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic recurrent inflammatory disease including ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and indeterminate colitis, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients and has become a global health problem. Although the pathogenesis of IBD is not very clear, many factors are thought to be related to the occurrence and development of IBD such as genes, immunity, and intestinal flora. How to control IBD effectively for a long time is still a problem for gastroenterologists. Diet has an important effect on IBD. Patients with IBD should pay more attention to diet. To date, many studies have reported that isoflavones have both good and bad effects on IBD. Isoflavones have many activities such as regulating the inflammatory signal pathways and affecting intestinal barrier functions and gut flora. They can also act through estrogen receptors, as they have a similar structure to estrogen. Isoflavones are easy to get from diet for human. Whether they are valuable to be applied to the treatment of IBD is worth studying. This review summarizes the relationship between isoflavones and IBD.

Keywords: Isoflavone; Metabolism; Effects; Inflammatory bowel disease; Structure; Treatment

Core tip: Isoflavones constitute a class of plant hormones, and the major source of human intake is soybeans. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic recurrent inflammatory disease, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients. To date, many studies have reported that isoflavones have effects on IBD. Isoflavones have many activities, such as regulating the inflammatory signal pathways, intestinal barrier function, and gut flora. They can also act through estrogen receptors, because they have a similar structure to estrogen. This review summarizes the relationship between isoflavones and IBD.