A Mouse Model for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Associated Tumorigenesis

Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is one kind of chronic, relapsing inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract and has the potential of tumorigenesis. However, no stable and mature cell line is available for relative basic research, so animal model is essential. In this study, a mice model was built, which mimics the dynamic disease course of inflammatory bowel disease associated tumorigenesis with injection of azoxymethane and sequent cycles of drinking water with dextran sulfate sodium. All the mice survived till the end of the modeling procedure. Compared with the mice in the control group, the mice in the modeling group experienced obvious bloody diarrhea and body weight loss (P<0.001). The colorectum was significantly swollen and shorter (P<0.001) while the spleen was significantly bigger (P<0.001) in mice in the modeling group compared with the mice in the control group. All the mice in the modeling group developed tumors in the colorectum, with an average tumor number of 6.5 and an average tumor size of 10.25 mm3. Pathological evaluation by hematoxylin and eosin staining confirmed the tumors as adenomas with high-grade dysplasia. In conclusion, this model is inducible and stable which would be very useful in the research in this field