Colitis Induction and Resistant Maltodextrin in Mice

Female C57BL/6J mice (7 weeks old) were purchased from SPF Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China) and went through a one-week adaptation period. Animals were housed at 22-25°C with a 12 h light/12 h dark cycle. Standard chow and water were provided ad libitum [23 (link)].
All of the mice were randomly divided into four groups (n = 10/group): (i) control group (CON) was provided water; (ii) DSS group was provided 3% DSS (w/v) solution with distilled water; (iii) resistant maltodextrin group (RM) was provided RM (50 mg/kg body weight/day) dissolving in 100 μL PBS by gavage; and (v) RM-DSS group was provided with 3% DSS (w/v) solution with distilled water and RM (50 mg/kg body weight/day) dissolving in 100 μL PBS by gavage. Referring to some published articles [20 (link), 21 (link)], the dose of resistant maltodextrin was chosen based on a pre-experiment, which included two doses (50 mg/kg body weight/day and 100 mg/kg body weight/day). RM was administered for 19 days. On the 14th day of the study, DSS (3% (w/v), molecular weight 36−50 kDa (MP Biomedical, Solon, OH, USA)) was added to drinking water to induce colitis and continued for the next 5 days [23 (link)]. The experimental procedure is shown in Figure 1.