Effect of Colchicine on Experimental Acetic Acid Induced Colitis

Abstract

Objectives: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory disease of the colonic mucosa with involvement from distal to proximal and characterized by neutrophil infiltration. There is no golden standart for the current state of therapy of the patients with UC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible effects of colchicine against acetic acid (AA)-induced colitis in rats. Methods: Fifty three rats were divided into six groups. Rats with AA-induced colitis were treated by intraperitoneal or oral administration of colchicine (80 mcg/kg/day) on treated group. Other four groups formed as colitis control groups and sham groups. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), myeloperoxidase (MPO), lipid peroxidation end products (MDA, FOX) were evaluated from the tissue extracts of colon. Results: The macroscopic and microscopic colitis scores were found to be significantly increased on AA-induced colitis compared to the sham groups (p < 0.0001). However, there were no significant differences between oral or intraperitoneal treated groups and their control groups for those scores. Oral colchicine therapy was associated with decreased SOD (p < 0.0001) and MPO (p=0.001), but increased FOX (p=0.013) levels. Conclusions: Colchicine could be beneficial to control the inflammation in treatment of UC. However, in our study, there was not any protective effect to antioxidant activity neither inhibition on lipid peroxidation end products were observed.