Smooth Muscle Motility: Comparing the Effect of a Synthetic Anti-Diarrhoeal Drug with a Probiotic on an Isolated Rabbit Intestine

Background: Diarrhoea exerts an enormous toll in terms of mortality, morbidity, social inconvenience, loss of work productivity, and consumption of medical resources. Acute infectious diarrhea remains one of the most common causes of mortality in developing countries, particularly among children, accounting for 2-3 million deaths per year. Aim: To compare the contractile effect of a synthetic anti-spasmotic and a probiotic drug on an isolated rabbit intestine. Method: A healthy rabbit weighing 300g was humanely sacrificed and a length of a small intestine (ileum) was isolated and submerged in a tissue bath. The test solutions (Saccharomyces boulardii, Synthetic anti-spasmodic) were then applied in graded doses and the final bath concentration calculated. Results: The experimental data was analyzed using T-test of Independent variable and the output clearly revealed that there was no significant difference (p = 0.73) in the Amplitude between the two drugs. But there was a significant difference observed in the frequency between the two drugs (p = 0.002). Conclusion: S. boulardii is a well tolerated probiotic with little or no side effects that has some effect on intestinal motility.