Protective effects of myrtle flavored bovine milk against ulcerative colitis in rats: Involvement of oxidative stress

Abstract

We aimed in the present to study to evaluate the protective effect of myrtle berries flavored bovine milk in acetic acid-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) model of inflammatory bowel disease in rats. Adult male Wistar rats were used and divided into five groups of ten each: control; UC; UC + bovine milk (BM) ; UC + myrtle flavored bovine milk (MFBM) (10 ml kg-¹, b.w., p.o.); and UC + sulfasalazine (100 mg kg-¹, b.w., p.o.). BM or MFBM (10 ml kg-¹, b.w., p.o.) effectively suppressed the severity of colon injuries as evidenced by attenuation of histological morphological damages and colon weight/length ratio. BM or MFBM administration attenuated also the colon oxidative stress via reduction of malondialdehyde (MDA) level and restoration of non-enzymatic antioxidant such as thiols groups and reduced glutathione, antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx).and plasma scavenging activity (PSA). More importantly, BM or MFBM treatment also reversed all acetic acid induced-intracellular mediator perturbations. In conclusion, our data suggests that bovine milk flavored by myrtle berries exerted a potential protective effect against AA-induced colitis in rat owing in part to its antioxidant or by negatively regulating some intracellular mediators implicated in the Fenton reaction.

Keywords: flavored bovine milk, colon, oxidative stress, thiols groups, functional beverage