Customized Oxazolone-Induced Colitis Models

Oxazolone (4-ethoxylmethylene-2-phenyloxazol-5-one) is another hapten that when administered intra-rectally with ethanol produced acute and chronic colitis in murine models. Treatment with oxazolone on days 1 and 8 is the usual protocol for the acute colitis model, while administration on days 1, 6, 20, and 34 resulted in chronic colitis. Unlike the TNBS/DNBS-induced colitis model, this model resembles only ulcerative colitis (UC) and is limited to the distal part of the colon only. Oxazolone-induced colitis has been suggested to be dependent on the presence of IL13 producing invariant NK-T cells.

Fig. 1. Oxazole-induced colonic inflammation model is a widely used experimental model to study inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Fig. 1. Characterization of oxazolone-induced colitis model. (Meroni et al., 2018)

Our Oxazolone-Induced Colitis Models

Ace Therapeutics has many years of experience in the field of UC and provides customized oxazolone-induced colitis models to help clients study the pathomechanisms of UC and evaluate drugs that target Th2-mediated mechanisms. Our professional team can provide full support from model building to data analysis.

Oxazolone-Induced Colitis Modeling Methods

The procedure is divided into three phases: the sensitization, the challenge, and finally the analysis of the intestinal inflammation. The protocol requires up to 9 days for the induction of acute colitis, starting with sensitization of the animal on day 0. Chronic colitis can be induced by repeated low doses of oxazolone, which usually takes 4-5 weeks.

Fig. 2. Time schedule for the acute oxazolone colitis model.

Animal Species for Oxazolone Modeling

Similar to other animal models of inflammation, the development of oxazolone-induced colitis depends on the animal strain and the commensal flora of different animal facilities. For example, we can model oxazolone-induced colitis in a variety of animals:

SJL/J, C57/ BL10, and BALB/c mice
Immunodeficient NOD-SCID-IL2R mice
Wild-type or transgenic zebrafish (0.2% oxazolone in 50% ethanol, administered rectally)

Preclinical Evaluation in Oxazolone-Induced Colitis Models

Ace Therapeutics can assist clients with the validation and downstream analysis of oxazolone-induced colitis models. Our advanced technology platform ensures that you will find reliable and easy-to-use tools to enhance your experiments.

Measure animal body weight and record the weight daily in order to monitor for body weight changes.
Examine the appearance of the colonic mucosa by using the murine colonoscopy system. This allows you to visualize the architecture of colonic mucosa and to detect early symptoms of mucosal inflammation.
Measure the length of the colon without stretching.
Obtain colonic cryosections for the histopathologic analysis.
Collect the blood to measure inflammatory cytokine level in the blood serum.
Store the remaining colonic segments for further analysis of mRNA expression.

Ace Therapeutics has extensive experience in using the oxazole-induced colitis model and can customize experimental protocols to meet different research needs. The model allows us to effectively help our clients study the immune response in oxazolone-induced colitis and evaluate the potential therapeutic effects of the drug. If you are interested in our services, please contact us to learn more.

Reference

Meroni, E., et al. (2018). Functional characterization of oxazolone-induced colitis and survival improvement by vagus nerve stimulation. PLoS One, 13(5), e0197487.

! For research use only, not intended for any clinical use.