Preventive Therapy of Experimental Colitis with Selected Iron Chelators and Anti-oxidants

Objectives: iron chelators, such as maltol and kojic acid, have antioxidantand anti-inflammatory properties. they may have beneficial effectson inflammatory bowel disease (ibd) because iron can developand aggravate inflammation in ibd. in the present study, the effect ofselected iron chelators and anti-oxidants were evaluated on a model oftrinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (tnbs)-induced colitis.methods: colitis was induced with instillation of 75 mg/kg tnbs in0.25 ml ethanol 50% via the anus in fasted male wistar rats. the animalswere assigned randomly to 12 groups (n = 6) and treated oncedaily, started 2 hours before colitis induction, with normal saline(5 ml/kg), maltol (70, 140, 280 mg/kg), kojic acid (75, 150, 300mg/kg), vitamin e (400 mg/kg), deferiprone (l1) (150 mg/kg) andprednisolone (4 mg/kg) orally and deferoxamine (50 mg/kg) intraperitoneallyfor 5 days. in the sixth day, rats were scarified and colon tissueswere assessed macroscopically and pathologically.results: maltol (280 mg/kg) was able to reduce colon weight / lengthratio, ulcer index and total colitis index similar to prednisolone, deferoxamineand deferiprone as positive controls. however, kojic acid andvitamin e could not significantly alleviate macroscopic and/or pathologicfeatures of inflammation in comparison to normal saline.conclusions: maltol with the highest test dose was capable to protectagainst experimentally induced colitis. kojic acid and vitamin e werenot effective in this animal model of colon inflammation. more detailedstudies are warranted to explore the mechanisms involved inanti-colitic property of maltol and to explain ineffectiveness of kojicacid and vitamin e.