Acute induced colitis in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) by indomethacin and Escherichia coli O78, and protective effect of dill and fennel extracts
Submitted: 2025-12-10
|Accepted: 2026-03-16
|Published: 2026-06-30
Copyright (c) 2026 Reham A. El-Shafei, Abdelfattah H. Eladl, Mohamed A. El-Adl, Shereen Badr, Rasha M. Elkenany, Hanaa S. Ali, Yousra Nomier (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Keywords:
essential oils, medicinal plants, dill, fennel, induced colitis, E. coli O78, rabbits
Supporting agencies:
Project (code no.: R.P/ 1) funded by Mansoura University
Abstract:
This study evaluated acute colitis induced by indomethacin and Escherichia coli O78 in rabbits and the efficacy of essential oils in treating of diseased rabbits. A total of 90 male rabbits were equally divided into two experiments (45 rabbits per experiment). The first experiment included five groups (G1-G5). G1 (C) group: Animals received 1 mL PBS orally; G2 (indo) group: received of indomethacin (8 mg/kg body weight (BW)) to induce colitis as a single subcutaneous administration; G3 (indo+Dill) group: received indomethacin for 24 h, followed by the administration of dill oil (200 mg/kg BW) via a gastric tube for five consecutive days; G4 (indo+Fennel) group: received indomethacin, followed by the administration of fennel oil (400 mg/kg BW) via a gastric tube for five consecutive days; and G5 (indo+DEX) group: received indomethacin, followed by oral administration of dexamethasone (1 mg/kg) after 24 h, serving as a standard treatment for colitis. The second experiment included five groups (G1-G5). G1 (C) group: received 1 mL PBS orally; G2 (EC) group: infected with E. coli suspension (O78) orally (1.0 mL x 108 CFU) ; G3 (EC+Dill) group: orally infected with E. coli and administration of dill oil (200 mg/kg BW) via a gastric tube for five days; G4 (EC+Fennel) group: orally infected with E. coli and administration of fennel oil (400 mg/kg BW) via a gastric tube for five days; G5 (EC+Florfenicol) group: orally infected with E. coli andadministration of 1 mL of florfenicol (30 mg/kg BW) for five days. All rabbits were weighed at 7, 14 and 21 d in both experiments, and blood samples were collected for haematological, biochemical and immunological analysis. Subsequently, liver and colon tissues were collected for gene expression analysis and histopathological examination. In both experiments, the G2 group exhibited significant differences (P<0.05) compared to the supplemented groups (G3 & G4) in terms of growth performance, clinical signs, bacterial shedding, biochemical, immunological and haematological parameters, cytokines production and histopathological lesion scores. In both experiments, G3 and G4 had the highest (P<0.05) growth performance, phagocytic activity, IgM and IgG, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and antioxidant activity. Additionally, these groups showed the lowest rates of bacterial shedding, hepatic and renal damage, heterophil/lymphocyte ratios and lesion scores compared to the other groups. In conclusion, a five-day supplementation of dill and fennel extracts improves growth performance, immunological status, antioxidant activity and cytokine production in the treatment of rabbits with colitis induced by indomethacin and E. coli O78.
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