Increased Duodenal Eosinophil Degranulation in Patients with Functional Dyspepsia: A Prospective Study

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder diagnosed by symptom-based criteria. It has been said that duodenal immune activation plays a role in the pathogenesis of FD. The primary aims of the study were to compare the total number of duodenal eosinophil and evaluate the eosinophil degranulation rate, number of duodenal degranulated eosinophil and mast cell between patients with FD and healthy subjects. We enrolled 96 patients with FD and 24 healthy controls at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital. The total number of eosinophil was comparable in the second portion of duodenum (D2) and duodenal bulb (D1) between patients with FD and healthy controls (all P > 0.05). Significant higher eosinophil degranulation positive rate in D2 (P = 0.003) and a trend towards higher in D1 (P = 0.084) were observed in patients with FD compared with healthy controls. Moreover, the number of duodenal degranulated eosinophil in patients with FD were significantly increased than healthy controls in D1(9.8 ± 6.3 vs 2.9 ± 2.1 per HPF, P = 0.0002) and a trend towards increase in D2 (10.7 ± 7.7 vs 5.3 ± 0.9 per HPF, P = 0.077), respectively. However, degranulated mast cells in patients with FD were almost same with healthy controls. Increased eosinophils degranulation in duodenum play an important role in pathogenesis of FD.