Role of allopurinol and febuxostat in the amelioration of dextran-induced colitis in rats

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic auto-inflammatory disorder confined to the colorectal region. It is challenging to find an absolute treatment and current therapy aims to ameliorate symptoms, decrease relapses and prevent prognosis of colorectal cancer. In the present study, we investigated the possible action of xanthine oxidase inhibitors in murine colitis model by measuring different indicative parameters and comparing the results to those of the reference sulfasalazine. Also, we compared the effects of combining sulfasalazine and allopurinol to each drug alone. Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS) is used in this study to induce ulcerative colitis in male wistar rats as it is known to be the closest model that mimics human ulcerative colitis. Allopurinol was given prior to colitis induction by four days and febuxostat for six days before induction with DSS (5% w/v) and continue to give them concomitantly during the induction.Il-1 beta, malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione (GSH), xanthine oxidase, and superoxide dismutase were measured in colonic tissue. We also measured concentrations of IL-1 beta, Il-6 and uric acid in serum. Allopurinol dose-dependently ameliorated biochemical injuries. Febuxostat has shown better results than allopurinol and sulfasalazine, and this is the first study to demonstrate this.