Antioxidant and anticytokine effects of bovine colostrum in intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injured rat model

The objective of this study was to examine antioxidant and anticytokine effects of bovine colostrum (BC) in an intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injured rat model. Forty Sprague-Dawley rats were induced intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury. After reperfusion the rats were given BC, 0.9% saline or low fat milk (LFM) orally. The antioxidative activities using superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were analyzed in this study. Serum cytokine levels [tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interlukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-10] were also checked. SOD (1.53±0.23 U/mg of protein), GSH-PX (7.62±0.66 U/mg of protein), and CAT (42.16± 3.16 U/mg of protein) activities increased and MDA level (0.58±0.05 mmol/mg of protein) decreased significantly in rats fed BC compared to rats fed saline or LFM (p<0.05). TNF-α (7.63±1.31 pg/ mL), IL-1β (49.43±4.43 pg/mL), and IL-6 (62.85±7.60 pg/ mL) in rats fed BC were significantly lower than saline or LFM (p<0.005), whereas there was no significant difference in IL-10 (220.3±22.06 pg/mL) between experimental groups. In conclusion, BC may have both antioxidative and anticytokine effects in an intestinal ischemia/reperfusion rat model.