Biomaterial Database

Smoking and nicotine in inflammatory bowel disease: good or bad for cytokines? 1998

F J Zijlstra

Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. zijlstra@farma.fgg.eur.nl

Smoking has either a beneficial or harmful effect on the course and recurrence of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease respectively. Transdermal application of nicotine had similar effects in ulcerative colitis and therefore was considered to be an effective basic drug which could be further developed in the search for new compounds in the treatment of acute exacerbations of corticosteroid resistant ulcerative colitis. In this communication the short-term use of nicotine in ulcerative colitis is reviewed.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009538	Nicotine	Nicotine is highly toxic alkaloid. It is the prototypical agonist at nicotinic cholinergic receptors where it dramatically stimulates neurons and ultimately blocks synaptic transmission. Nicotine is also important medically because of its presence in tobacco smoke.	Nicotine Bitartrate,Nicotine Tartrate
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012907	Smoking	Willful or deliberate act of inhaling and exhaling SMOKE from burning substances or agents held by hand.	Smoking Behaviors,Smoking Habit,Behavior, Smoking,Behaviors, Smoking,Habit, Smoking,Habits, Smoking,Smoking Behavior,Smoking Habits
D015212	Inflammatory Bowel Diseases	Chronic, non-specific inflammation of the GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT. Etiology may be genetic or environmental. This term includes CROHN DISEASE and ULCERATIVE COLITIS.	Bowel Diseases, Inflammatory,Inflammatory Bowel Disease
D016207	Cytokines	Non-antibody proteins secreted by inflammatory leukocytes and some non-leukocytic cells, that act as intercellular mediators. They differ from classical hormones in that they are produced by a number of tissue or cell types rather than by specialized glands. They generally act locally in a paracrine or autocrine rather than endocrine manner.	Cytokine