Sun-Dried and Air-Dried Kappaphycus alvarezii Attenuates 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Intestinal Mucositis in Mice

Abstract

5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced intestinal mucositis (IM) often makes chemotherapy patients suffer from physical and psychological suffering. Kappaphycus alvarezii (KA) is known for its potent multiple biological activities from decades. In the current study, we explored the effect of sun-dried and air-dried Kappaphycus alvarezii as a whole food supplement on 5-FU-induced IM. Diets supplemented with sun-dried Kappaphycus alvarezii (SKA, 3%), air-dried Kappaphycus alvarezii (AKA, 3%), and 5-aminosalicylic acid (0.005%) for consecutive14 days. While intraperitoneal injection of 5-FU (50 mg/kg) induced IM for last three consecutive days, and IM was assessed by the disease activity index (DAI) and inflammatory cytokine levels. Pretreatment of KA could alleviate phenotypic index, inhibit the increase of DAI, and reverse villus/crypt ratio. On the 14th day, AKA significantly increased the weight growth rate of the mice. The intervention of SKA significantly reduced the level of TNF-α and IL-1β (P < 0.01, P < 0.01), while the intervention of AKA significantly inhibited the level of TNF-α, IL-1β, and LT (P < 0.01, P < 0.01, P < 0.001). Therefore, these results showed that KA as a whole food supplement might be prevent the 5-FU-induced IM. For the first time suggest that the use of AKA might be more effective than SKA despite exact mechanism still needs further study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

Research data are not shared.

Additional information

Funding

This work was done in Department of College of Food Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. This work was supported by the key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province under Grant [2019GHY112058] and National Key Research and Development Plan of China under Grant [2019YFC1604605].