Inflammatory Bowel Disease - DSS-Induced Colitis

Inflammatory bowel disease is a multifactorial disease with unknown etiology, and is comprised of two major subtypes, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). UC affects mostly the large intestine or colon, while CD may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract (1). To study UC, dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) is frequently used to induce colitis in experimental animals since an acute, chronic, or relapsing colitis can be easily induced by changing the concentration or administration period of DSS (2).

Chondrex, Inc. provides DSS for the induction of colitis in experimental animals, as well as simple tools for evaluating typical features and complications of disease, which mimic human colitis (3, 4). The following results show the evaluation of a DSS-induced mouse colitis model in C3H mice by measuring A) body weight, B) hemoglobin (hb) levels (a marker of anemia) and C) gastrointestinal permeability with FITC-dextran.

Dextran Sulfate Sodium for Colitis

Experimental Protocol

C3H Mice (Female, 7-8 weeks old)
3.5% DSS in water or water only ad libitum, Day 1 - Day 5

Weight loss in C3H mice treated with DSS: mice were fed water (control) or 3.5% DSS ad libitum for 5 days.  Mice were weighed every weekday until Day 14

Evaluation B

DSS-induced colitis reduces Hb levels in C3H mice: mice were fed water (control) or 3.5% DSS ad libitum for 5 days.  Hb levels were assayed on Day 5.  *P<0.005, Student's T-test indicates that the DSS group is statistically different from the water (control) group.

Evaluation C

In Vivo Assay Protocol

  1. Fast mice 4 hours before oral feeding and for the duration of the experiment
  2. Feed 40 kDa FITC-Dextran (6.25 mg/0.25 ml/mouse) by oral gavage
  3. (3 hours later) Collect plasma
  4. Dilute plasma 1:2 (or more) with PBS
  5. Transfer 50-100 microliters of supernatant to a 96-well plate
  6. Read fluorescence intensity at Ex: 490 nm and Em: 530 nm

DSS-induced colitis increases intestinal permeability in C3H mice: mice were fed water (control) or 3.5% DSS ad libitum for 5 days.  An FITC-dextran permeability assay was performed on Day 5.  *P<0.05, Studen'ts T-test indicates that the DSS group is statistically different from the water (control) group.

NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, PROMOTIONS AND MORE

Join Our Mailing List