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 ratmodel 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 intosix groups; normal, control, prophylactic, therapeutic and two experim ental groups. rat swere sacrificed 1, 2, 3 and 6 weeks after colitis ind uction. severi ty of coliti s was gradedmacroscopi 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, butlesions were still observed after six weeks. tnbs adminis tration also significantly enhancedthe serum and colonic mucosal cytokines (fnf-alpha and il-6) and eicosanoids (ltb4 andpge2) 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 atconcent ration of 0.5% 0x!iv) for six weeks. result s showed that pre-tre atment (inprophylactic group) and treatment with lva were significantly able to reduce colonicdamage score, serum level and colonic mucosal production of tnf-alph a, il -6, ltb4 andpge2 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.