Actions of anticolitic drugs on a guinea-pig model of immune colitis.

A cell-mediated immune colitis in guinea-pigs was examined for its response to several drugs used in the management of colitis as an attempt to obtain an appropriate model for evaluating potentially new anticolitic drugs. The experimentally-induced colitis was readily reproducible and possessed several features in common with the clinical disease: diarrhoea, rectal bleeding and body weight loss, together with ulceration and haemorrhage of the distal colon. Sulphasalazine, prednisolone and disodium chromoglycate appeared not to influence the manifestations of the colitis nor the macroscopic features of the inflamed colon. Azathioprine (AZA) at 100 mg/kg but not at 30 mg/kg modified the colitis in some but not all animals. This model appears to be of little value for the screening of anti-colitic agents.