A Comparative Study between the Effect of Simvastatin and Sitagliptin Combined and the Effect of a Large Dose of Each in an Early Treatment of Experimentally Induced Colitis in Mice

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic-relapsing, progressive inflammatory bowel disease characterized by diffuse mucosal inflammation of the colon. Repeated damage and injury of the intestinal surface are key features of inflammatory bowel disease. It can be concluded that sitagliptin is partially effective for treatment of experimentally induced ulcerative colitis model in mice. Furthermore, it can be also concluded that effects of simvastatin treatment were mostly dose dependantfor treatment of experimentally induced ulcerative colitis model in mice. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate effect of combination of sitagliptin and simvastatin as an early treatment of experimentally induced ulcerative colitis in mice. Furthermore in this study, effect of large dose of either sitagliptin or simvastatin will be compared with combination of both drugs. Thirty mice were equally divided into the following groups: control group, non-treated DSS-induced colitis group, DSS-induced colitis mice treated with simvastatin(50mg/kg/d)group, DSS-induced colitis mice treated with sitagliptin (100 mg/kg/day) group, DSS-induced colitis mice treated with sitagliptin (20mg/kg/d) combined with simvastatin (5mg/kg/d) group. Combination of sitagliptin 20 mg/kg/d + simvastatin 5 mg/kg/d produced a significant decrease in serum TNF-α, colonic tissue MDA & NO levels.Furthermore, reduced glutathione was significantly increased up to near normal level. As regard colon length, it returned to nearly normal length. Combination of small dose of both drugs showed 66% decrease in DAI. This combination restored normal histological appearance of the colon. This is a very good combination as regards to their small doses and consequently less adverse effects.