5-FU-Induced Diarrhea in Mice: A Comparative Study

Kunming mice were randomly assigned into six groups (n = 10): normal group; 5-FU group (5-FU, 60 mg/kg/day for 5 days, intraperitoneal injections); LO group (loperamide; 4 mg/kg/day for 7 days, oral administration); BJO group (0.125 (BJOL), 0.250 (BJOM), 0.500 (BJOH) g/kg/day for 7 days, oral administration). According to previous research (Zheng et al., 2019 (link)), 5-FU intraperitoneal injection (from day 1 to day 5); 30 min later, oral administration of BJO and LO was carried out (from day 1to day 7). The normal group mice were injected with physiological saline and orally received blank emulsion. The 5-FU group mice were injected with 5-FU and orally given blank emulsion. Body weight, stool consistency, food intake, and general appearance of mice were recorded daily. Diarrhea was measured using the mean scores. As shown in Table 1, the severity was quantified according to a previously described procedure (Huang et al., 2009 (link)). After the 7-day treatment, the blood was obtained after enucleation of eyeball, and mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. After 2 h, blood was centrifuged for 15 min at 3500 rpm and 4°C in refrigerate centrifuge, and serum was collected.