Sauna dehydration as a new physiological challenge model for intestinal barrier function

The intestinal barrier plays a crucial role in maintaining gut health, and an increased permeability has been linked to several intestinal and extra-intestinal disorders. There is an increasing demand for interventions aimed at strengthening this barrier and for in vivo challenge models to assess their efficiency. This study investigated the effect of sauna-induced dehydration on intestinal barrier function (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03620825). Twenty healthy subjects underwent three conditions in random order: (1) Sauna dehydration (loss of 3% body weight), (2) non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) intake, (3) negative control. Intestinal permeability was assessed by a multi-sugar urinary recovery test, while intestinal damage, bacterial translocation and cytokines were assessed by plasma markers. The sauna dehydration protocol resulted in an increase in gastroduodenal and small intestinal permeability. Presumably, this increase occurred without substantial damage to the enterocytes as plasma intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP) and liver fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) were not affected. In addition, we observed significant increases in levels of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), IL-6 and IL-8, while sCD14, IL-10, IFN-ɣ and TNF-α were not affected. These results suggest that sauna dehydration increased intestinal permeability and could be applied as a new physiological in vivo challenge model for intestinal barrier function.