ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of treatment of Bacillus licheniformis (BL) on ulcerative colitis(UC) in BALB/c mice. METHODS: The therapeutic effect of different treatment was evaluated in seven acute UC mice groups and one control group, including the normal group, the model group, the solvent group, the sulfasalazine (SASP) treated group, the high dose BL treated group, the low dose BL treated group, the high dose BL with SASP treated group and the low dose BL with SASP treated group. The disease activity index (DAI) score of mice were recorded every other day since the experiment started. On the 15th day, all the mice were killed, then gross injury score in colonic mucosa and histopathological changes were measured. The expression levels of NF-κB and Bcl-2 in mouse colonic mucosa was also determined by immunohistochemistry method. RESULTS: The DAI score, the colonic gross injury score, the histopathological changes and the expression level of NF-κB and Bcl-2 of mice colonic mucosa in drug treated groups were decreased significantly when comparing with the drug untreated groups. Moreover, these results were even better in two drugs combined treated groups than in single drug treated groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: BL has the efficacy of remission DSS-induced acute ulcerative colitis in mice, and there is more effective when it is administered with SASP. The results indicat that the therapeutic effort is via inhibiting the expression of NF-κB and Bcl-2 in colonic mucosa.