Damage and regeneration of small intestinal enterocytes under the influence of carrageenan induces chronic enteritis

The food additive carrageenan (E407) is a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds which has been widely used in the food industry as a thickener and gelling agent. Several varying models of carrageenan-induced acute inflammation have been developed to allow study of the anti-inflammatory activity of drugs and to evaluate the role of inflammatory mediators (Nantel et al. 1999). Carrageenan has been used to induce both acute and chronic inflammation in laboratory animals, including peritonitis (de Carvalho et al. 2013), pleurisy (Renard et al. 2014) and arthritis (Arun et al. 2013). Oral consumption of carrageenan has been shown to result in chronic intestinal inflammation and neoplasia in intestines of experimental animals (Tobacman 2001). However, the pathogenesis of carrageenan-induced inflammation is still poorly understood. In particular, levels of apoptotic activity in small intestine after prolonged oral administration of carrageenan are unknown. This study examines morphological features of small intestine and evaluates apoptotic biochemical indices in homogenate of small intestine of rats after prolonged oral administration of carrageenan.