Protective effects of sodium ferulate on injury in acetic acid-induced rat colitis

AIM: To study the effects of sodium ferulate on acetic acid-induced rat colitis and its mechanism. METHODS: The colitis model of rats was produced by intracolon enema with acetic acid. The experiment animals were divided into 5 groups: normal group, model group, SF groups (200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg, 800 mg/kg), and treated intracolonically with saline and SF respectively once per day for 7 days. At the end of the experiment, the colon mucosa damage index (CMDI) and the occult blood test (OBT) were evaluated.The contents of MDA, NO, PGE2, and TXB2 , the activities of myelopexoxidase (MPO) and SOD, the expression of COX-2 and NF-κBp65 in the rat colon were detected. Platelet agglutinability was also measured. RESULTS: The extents of CMDI and OBT, the contents of MDA, NO, PGE2 and TXB2, the activity of MPO, the expression of COX-2 and NF-κBp65 in the colon and the platelet agglutinability in the model group were higher than those in normal group, while the activity of SOD was lower than that in normal group. SF could alleviate the CMDI and OBT, and ameliorate the abnormity of these detected indexes in a dose-depended manner. CONCLUSION: Treatment with SF intracolon can relieve the inflammation reaction, attenuate the colon mucosal damage in the rat colitis through resisting oxidative stress, restraining arachidonic acid metabolism, platelet activation and the expression of NF-κB.