THE VALUE OF DOXYCYCLINE IN ACETIC ACID INDUCE ULCERATIVE COLITIS IN RATS

Ulcerative colitis is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory disease of the colon for which a lot of treatment modalities are present, however, significant side effects are associated with them and there is a need for a search for other treatment options.  This study was aimed to investigate the therapeutic role of Doxycycline in experimentally induced colitis in rats. Animals were categorized into 5 groups; the control group undergoes no induction of UC, colitis group in which UC was induced and animals receive no treatment, the Doxycycline group that received Doxycycline and Sulfasalazine group that received Sulfasalazine. Each group was composed of 10 animals. After the completion of the one-month period of experiment, animals were sacrificed and the following measures were done: weight of colon, determination of the area of mucosal damage by mm², histological scoring after hematoxylin and eosin stain together with MAC score and immunohistochemistry of IL-6, TNF-alpha, MPO, MDA, CD62, and ICAM1. The results revealed that Doxycycline was able to reduce the area of mucosal damage, colon weight, histological and Mac scores and immunohistochemical scores of inflammatory and oxidative markers, significantly in comparison with colitis group (P<0.05). Doxycycline was proved to be an effective adjuvant treatment for colitis through its, anti-inflammatory and the anti-oxidant activity.