THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL OSTEOPATHIC ANIMAL MODALITY OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Purpose: Osteopathic clinicians have reported some success in the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients; however, objective evidence-based research exploring mechanisms and efficacy of OMT in IBD is lacking, in part due to the lack of an osteopathic IBD animal model. Therefore, the purpose of these experiments was to establish such a model and lay a foundation for future studies. Preliminary results can be used and expanded upon in future studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of lymphatic pump techniques (LPT) in IBD, and to create treatment regimens and guidelines for the application of LPT. Methods: Colitis in male, Wistar rats, weighing around 275 grams, was induced by replacing normal drinking water with water containing 3.5% DSS for 10 days (days 0-9). Treatment was performed daily on days 3-8, which allowed for 3 days of IBD induction by DSS. To minimize stress to both animals and animal handlers, 2-5% isoflurane gas was administered to LPT or Sham rats prior to and during treatment. This was done daily for 6 days (days 3-8). Experiments included an LPT group, a Sham group , a disease control group , and a healthy control group . Results: Daily treatment with DSS decreased body weight in both DSS and DSS+ISO groups, with a statistically significant difference to the Control group on days 7-9. The Disease Activity Index (DAI)score increased over time, without any changes between DSS and DSS+ISO groups.We found a statistically significant increase in colonic tissue damage at days 6 and 9 in DSS and DSS+ISO groups when compared to the Control group at respective days. LPT significantly decreased DAI as compared to Sham and DSS+ISO controls. Of interest, application of LPT restored the weight of the colon still containing fecal contents similar to levels seen in the healthy control group. In addition, LPT also restored stool consistency similar to what was seen in the healthy control group. This is of significance because decreases in filled colon weight are indicative of colonic hypermotility; thus, colons from animals with severe colitis can be seen to be nearly devoid of fecal contents. Conclusions: The results shown in this presentation confirm that the proposed DSS induction model does in fact present a disease model with clinical measurable variables, such as weight changes and DAI. We further showed that LPT had a significant decrease on disease severity and was able to reverse clinical symptoms of IBD.