The relationship of serum motilin level and clinical findings with polymorphism of motilin gene in chronic constipated children

Aim: Functional constipation is a clinical problem. Its reason is incompletely understood. Motilin is a gastrointestinal hormone that increase the normal intestinal motility. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship of motilin level and clinical findings with motilin gene polymorphism in constipated patients because of decreasing intestinal motility in low serum motilin level. Patients and method: In this study we investigated 91 constipated patients and 100 healthy controls. The sociodemographic data, duration of symptoms, concomitant signs, presence of constipation in the family were recorded. Body weight, length, body mass index and weight for height were also recorded after a complete physical examination. The blood samples were collected from patients and healthy controls for serum motilin level and motilin gene polymorphism investigation. The blood samples which were taken for motilin level and gene polymorphism, respectively; were studied with ELİSA method and PCR method. Results: There wasn?t a significant difference between patients and the controls in terms of gender. Girls were predominant in patients population. Mean age of onset of complaint was 5.5 age and median age was 6.2. We found that weight, weight z score, height and height z score were lower in patients. But there was no diffrence between body mass index and weight for height. The period of constipation symptoms were 37,6 months. The sore defecation was the most concomitant sign. In this study, we showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups for serum motilin level. Serum motilin level had no difference by age or gender. There were no differences in terms of presence or distribution the polymorfisms of rs2281820 (c.44 C>T) and rs2281818 (c.66 C>T). When we compered serum motilin level between patients and the controls by giving attention on gene polymorfism presence, being homozygous or heterozygous, no significant difference could be found. Conclusion: In this study, we couldn?t find a relationship between motilin gen polymorphism and serum motilin level in constipated patients. But serum motilin levels in patients group were lower than the healthy controls. Further prospective studies including larger number of patients are required to demonstrate the effect of motilin level on constipation and showing the availability for treatment.