Artificial food colorants can cause disease when the immune system has become dysregulated, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers report. The study, published in Cell Metabolism in May, was the first to show this phenomenon.

西奈山医学院的研究人员报告说，当免疫系统失调时，人工食用色素会导致疾病。这项研究发表在五月的《细胞代谢》杂志上，首次揭示了这种现象。

The study, conducted in mice, found that the mice developed colitis when they consumed food with the artificial food colorants FD&C Red 40 and Yellow 6 when a specific component of their immune system, known as cytokine IL-23, was dysregulated. While it remains unclear whether food colorants have similar effects in humans, researchers plan to investigate exactly how cytokine IL-23 promotes the development of colitis after food colorant exposure.

这项在小鼠身上进行的研究发现，当小鼠食用人工食用着色剂红40号和黄6号时，它们的免疫系统的一个特定成分，即细胞因子 IL-23失调，就会患上结肠炎。虽然目前还不清楚食用色素是否对人类有类似的影响，但研究人员计划研究细胞因子 IL-23在食用色素后如何影响结肠炎的发展。

Colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and cytokine IL-23 dysregulation is known to be a factor in the development of IBD in humans. Medicines that block its function are now successfully used in patients. Food colorants such as Red 40 and Yellow 6 are widely used in food, drink, and medicine. These two food colorants are the most commonly used in the world.

结肠炎是炎症性肠病(IBD)的一种形式，细胞因子IL-23调节失调是IBD在人类发展中的一个因素。目前，阻断其功能的药物已成功临床应用。食用色素如红40号和黄6号被广泛应用于食品、饮料和医药。这两种食用色素是世界上最常用的。

Both genetic predisposition and environmental factors appear to play a role in whether a person develops IBD, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide, but the exact environmental factors have remained elusive.

遗传易感性和环境因素似乎都对一个人是否患上炎症性肠病有影响，这种疾病影响着全世界数百万人，但确切的环境因素仍然难以捉摸。

For the study, the researchers created mouse models that had a dysregulated expression of cytokine IL-23. To their surprise, the mice with the dysregulated immune response did not develop inflammatory bowel disease spontaneously even though dysregulated IL-23 is a factor in people with the disease.

在这项研究中，研究人员建立了细胞因子 IL-23表达失调的小鼠模型。令他们惊讶的是，免疫反应失调的小鼠并没有自发地产生炎症性肠病，尽管 IL-23失调是患病的一个因素。

When given a diet with the food dyes Red 40 or Yellow 6, the altered mice developed colitis. However, mice that had the dye-infused diet but had a normal immune system did not develop IBD. To prove that the food colorant was indeed responsible, the researchers fed the altered mice diets without the food colorant and water containing it; in both cases, the disease developed when the mice consumed the colorant, but not otherwise. They repeated this finding for several diets and several food colorants.

当饮食中添加食用色素红40号和黄6号时，患病小鼠会患上结肠炎。但是，食用色素但具有正常免疫系统的小鼠不会发展为IBD。为了证明食用色素确实有影响的，研究人员分别观察了添加和不添加食用色素的饮食状况，当小鼠食用色素时均会发病，否则就没有。他们针对几种饮食和几种食用色素，都发现了这一现象。

"The dramatic changes in the concentration of air and water pollutants and the increased use of processed foods and food additives in the human diet in the last century correlate with an increase in the incidence of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases," said senior author Sergio Lira, MD, Ph.D., the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor of Immunology at the Precision Immunology Institute at Icahn Mount Sinai. "These environmental changes are thought to contribute to development of these diseases, but relatively little is known about how they do so. We hope this research is a step toward understanding the impact of food colorants on human health."

“上个世纪空气和水污染物浓度的急剧变化，以及人类饮食中加工食品和食品添加剂的使用增加，与炎症和自身免疫疾病发病率的增加有关，”资深作者塞尔吉奥·里拉(Sergio Lira)，博士，西欧伊坎山精密免疫研究所的Leona M.和Harry B. Helmsley慈善信托基金会免疫学教授介绍说，“这些环境变化是导致这些疾病发展的重要原因，但是关于它们如何发生的知之甚少。我们希望这项研究是朝着了解食用色素对人类健康的影响迈出的一步。”