Facilitation of mucosal healing by estrogen receptor in ulcerative colitis through suppression of branched-chain amino acid transport and subsequent triggering of autophagy in colonic epithelial cells.

Colonic mucosal healing is the ultimate goal of ulcerative colitis (UC) treatment, but it remains difficult to realize. Given the higher incidence of UC in males and the beneficial effect of estrogen on UC, we conducted this study to examine the therapeutic potential of estrogen receptor (ER), the primary ER subtype in colon, on mucosal healing in UC. Our study is the first to report that ER activation degree was positively correlated with mucosal healing in patients with UC.