Trial reportAnnals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England1996
Colonic mucus, smoking and ulcerative colitis.
Trial report in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1996. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- The epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease: exploring the impacts of environmental factors.The Korean journal of internal medicine · 2026Review
- The role of goblet cells and mucus in intestinal homeostasis.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2022Review
- Association between smoking and risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.United European gastroenterology journal · 2018Article
- Ulcerative colitis in smokers, non-smokers and ex-smokers.World journal of gastroenterology · 2011Review
- Smoking and inflammatory bowel diseases: what in smoking alters the course?International journal of colorectal disease · 2010Article
- Smoking in inflammatory bowel diseases: good, bad or ugly?World journal of gastroenterology · 2007Review
- Appendix redux.Gut · 2002Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human colonic mucosal protection is not fully understood but may in part rely on a layer of mucus gel adherent to the mucosa. Ulcerative colitis may occur if mucosal protection breaks down. Two studies are presented, both of which relate to the aetiology of ulcerative colitis. First, a layer of adherent mucus gel was demonstrated by a simple, reliable method. Measurements of mucus layer thickness were made in freshly resected colonic specimens and shown to increase from a mean of 107 microns on the right colon to 155 microns in the rectum. In ulcerative colitis the layer is significantly thinner or absent, whereas in Crohn's disease the colonic mucus layer is significantly thicker. Second, the relationship between smoking and colitis is explored by a double-blind, randomised and placebo-controlled trial of transdermal nicotine in active disease. Significant clinical benefit was seen, indicating nicotine may be both useful therapeutically and the component of tobacco smoke that acts to protect against colitis. Since smoking and nicotine have actions on mucosae and mucus in other organs, it is argued that there is a mucus deficiency in ulcerative colitis that smoking acts to reverse.
Indexed as
Identifiers
8678464PMC2502541W1544501954What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.