Abstract
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. In general, IBD is more common in Western than in Eastern places, and in industrialized than in developing countries. However, the incidence of IBD has been rising recently in Eastern countries including Egypt. Symptoms of IBD include loss of appetite, tenesmus, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and bloody stools. Available treatment options of IBD include drugs, surgery, or a combination of both. One of the most commonly used drugs for IBD management is an aminosalicylate called sulfasalazine. Several factors and symptoms of UC finally contribute to weight loss; thus, most of UC patients suffer from significant weight loss. The pathophysiology of IBD is complicated and involves several factors including immune, genetic, and environmental factors. Recently, a huge amount of research has concentrated on the role of oxidative stress in IBD, and several studies have proven that IBD patients suffer from excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species, while they have lower than normal amounts of antioxidant defenses. This leads to elevated amounts of oxidative stress-end products like malondialdehyde (MDA). In this study, we investigated body weight loss, histopathological alterations, and MDA levels in a mouse model of dextran sulfate sodium- induced UC, and the therapeutic effect of sulfasalazine. Our results showed that induction of colitis causes significant body weight loss and induces oxidative stress, and that treatment with sulfasalazine could restore normal mice body weights and combat the colitis-induced oxidative stress.
Highlights
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are a group of chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorders in which the colon and/or the small intestine become inflamed in a relapsing remitting fashion
Due to the abdominal pain and loss of appetite that are associated with IBD, in addition to the ability of food to trigger the symptoms, many IBD patients tend to cut down their food intake, which leads to considerable weight loss (Marchione, 2016)
Our results showed that this model caused significant weight loss in the disease mice compared to the control mice
Summary
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are a group of chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorders in which the colon and/or the small intestine become inflamed in a relapsing remitting fashion. There are several types of IBD, but the two most common types are Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (Podolsky, 2002). Since the middle of the twentieth century, the incidence of IBD began to rise in the Western industrialized countries like North America, Australia, and Europe, while it was still rare in Eastern developing countries (Molodecky et al, 2012). Aminosalicylates, derivatives of 5aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), include several drugs, with sulfasalazine being the most common one, and considered the standard therapy in IBD (Garud and Peppercorn, 2009). In order to avoid the undesirable symptoms that occur during flare-ups, some people tend to cut down their food intake or even stop eating, which leads to significant weight loss (Marchione, 2016)
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