Dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in immunodeficient rats.
To examine the morphology of colitis and study the role of the immune system in colitis, we compared colitis in immunocompetent Wistar-Kyoto rats with that in spontaneously hypertensive rats, known to have T-cell dysfunction. Rats were treated with 3% dextran sulfate in drinking water for periods ranging from 3 to 60 days. Diarrhea developed earlier and was associated with a more severe weight loss in Wistar-Kyoto rats than spontaneously hypertensive rats. The morphologic findings (flattening of the gland epithelium, gland dropout and ulceration) in spontaneously hypertensive rats were milder than in Wistar-Kyoto rats. Only spontaneously hypertensive rats survived 60 days of treatment; the findings included ulceration, crypt distortion, and inflammatory pseudopolyp formation. Immunostaining for B-cell, T-cell, and macrophage markers showed no difference in the distribution of these cells in the mucosa of Wistar-Kyoto rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats. Spontaneously hypertensive rats with T-cell dysfunction develop dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis.
Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
K
K
Shichijo
M
M
Gottfried
I
I
Sekine
T N
TN
Pappas
D000818:Animals; D003092:Colitis / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D016264:Dextran Sulfate; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D016264:Dextran Sulfate