Strontium Chloride: Can It Be a New Treatment Option for Ulcerative Colitis?

BACKGROUND/AIMS Patients with ulcerative colitis still need effective therapy without major side effects. It has been found that strontium can suppress NFκB activation induced by TNF-α. This opens a gate to a new anti-TNF agent which is cheap and can be given orally. We for the first time aimed to investigate the effect of strontium chloride (SrCl2) on inflammation in experimental colitis. METHODS Thirty female Wistar albino rats were divided into 5 groups each containing 6 rats. The rats in groups 1 and 2 served as the healthy control and colitis group, respectively. The rats in groups 3, 4, and 5 had colitis and received 40 mg/kg SrCl2, 160 mg/kg SrCl2, and 1 mg/kg prednisolone by oral gavage, respectively. The rats were sacrificed for histological evaluation and determination of serum neopterin, TNF-α, and IFN-γ levels. RESULTS The neopterin, TNF-α and IFNγ levels of group 2 was significantly higher than the other groups. The neopterin, TNF-α, and IFN-γ levels of controls and other treatment groups were comparable. There were a significant difference in macroscopic and microscopic healing between group 2 and other groups histologically. But there was not a significant difference within treatment receiving groups. CONCLUSION SrCl2 had comparable therapeutic efficiency with prednisolone.