I'd be interested in reading the full coy of this as well but cannot find it - should anyone have it or access please let me know.
Bacterial overgrowth and inflammation of small intestine after carboxymethylcellulose ingestion in genetically susceptible mice.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18844217--------
On a side note, bodybuilders have been sucking this stuff back in truly massive quantities for years and years in their mass building shakes. Especially in earlier versions. They seem to survive and perhaps even thrive. Same with those that consume massive emulsifiers (ice cream addicts, haha) they eat this stuff daily for years on end and during break-ups (women haha) and also seem to survive and thrive at times.
My bet is if you tested various other starches it would yield similar results.
In any case I'd think all additives would be incidence contributors as these studies point out - and not causal in any way. I think many of these studies ultimately point a big long finger directly at a bacterial root of these darn diseases. So basically there's a very old bug(s) kicking around that is thriving and spreading based on western diet and or farming practices that perviously had a very limited niche market.