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Is methane a new therapeutic gas?
BACKGROUND: Methane is an attractive fuel. Biologically, methanogens in the colon can use carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methane as a by-product. It was previously considered that methane is not utilized by humans. However, in a recent study, results demonstrated that methane could exert ant...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480884/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23009320 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-9912-2-25 |
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author | Liu, Wenwu Wang, Dong Tao, Hengyi Sun, XueJun |
author_facet | Liu, Wenwu Wang, Dong Tao, Hengyi Sun, XueJun |
author_sort | Liu, Wenwu |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Methane is an attractive fuel. Biologically, methanogens in the colon can use carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methane as a by-product. It was previously considered that methane is not utilized by humans. However, in a recent study, results demonstrated that methane could exert anti-inflammatory effects in a dog small intestinal ischemia-reperfusion model. POINT OF VIEW: Actually, the bioactivity of methane has been investigated in gastrointestinal diseases, but the exact mechanism underlying the anti-inflammatory effects is required to be further elucidated. Methane can cross the membrane and is easy to collect due to its abundance in natural gas. Although methane is flammable, saline rich in methane can be prepared for clinical use. These seem to be good news in application of methane as a therapeutic gas. CONCLUSION: Several problems should be resolved before its wide application in clinical practice. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3480884 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-34808842012-10-27 Is methane a new therapeutic gas? Liu, Wenwu Wang, Dong Tao, Hengyi Sun, XueJun Med Gas Res Commentary BACKGROUND: Methane is an attractive fuel. Biologically, methanogens in the colon can use carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methane as a by-product. It was previously considered that methane is not utilized by humans. However, in a recent study, results demonstrated that methane could exert anti-inflammatory effects in a dog small intestinal ischemia-reperfusion model. POINT OF VIEW: Actually, the bioactivity of methane has been investigated in gastrointestinal diseases, but the exact mechanism underlying the anti-inflammatory effects is required to be further elucidated. Methane can cross the membrane and is easy to collect due to its abundance in natural gas. Although methane is flammable, saline rich in methane can be prepared for clinical use. These seem to be good news in application of methane as a therapeutic gas. CONCLUSION: Several problems should be resolved before its wide application in clinical practice. BioMed Central 2012-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3480884/ /pubmed/23009320 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-9912-2-25 Text en Copyright ©2012 Liu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Commentary Liu, Wenwu Wang, Dong Tao, Hengyi Sun, XueJun Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title | Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title_full | Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title_fullStr | Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title_full_unstemmed | Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title_short | Is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
title_sort | is methane a new therapeutic gas? |
topic | Commentary |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480884/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23009320 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-9912-2-25 |
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