Therapeutic Effect of Sodium Alginate in Experimental Chronic Ulcerative Colitis

The aim o f this study was to test the ther apeutic efficacy of sodium alginate in a rat model of trinitrob enzene sulfo nic acid (fNBS)-induced inflammatory bowel disease. This exp erim ent was carried out using 77 Sprague-Dawley rats which were divided into six groups; normal, control, prophylactic, therapeutic and two experim ental groups. Rat s were sacrificed 1, 2, 3 and 6 weeks after colitis ind uction. Severi ty of coliti s was graded macroscopi cally and assessed using serum and coloni c mucosal cyrokines and eicosanoids. Intrarectal TNBS (30 mg) produced a significant chro nic ulcerative colitis. The lesion s were most severe on day seven after TNBS instillation, and then declined, but lesions were still observed after six weeks. TNBS adminis tration also significantly enhanced the serum and colonic mucosal cytokines (fNF-alpha and IL-6) and eicosanoids (LTB4 and PGE2) levels, whi ch paralleled with the severity of colitis. Low viscosity sodium alginat e (LVA) solution as therapeutic agent was administered orally as drinking water at concent ration of 0.5% 0X!IV) for six weeks. Result s showed that pre-tre atment (in prophylactic group) and treatment with LVA were significantly able to reduce colonic damage score, serum level and colonic mucosal production of TNF-alph a, IL -6, LTB4 and PGE2 in pre -treated and treated animals compared with non -treated control s. LVA therapy is able to suppress chr onic ulcerative coliti s in experimental model.