Abstract:
A comparison of the radioprotective potential on the intestinal
mucosa of male Swiss mice was made between commercial tomato
sauce and raw tomato. Twenty mice were used, and were divided into
four groups with five mice per group. The first group of mice were each
force-fed with 0.5mL commercial tomato sauce while another group
were force-ted with 0.5mL raw tomato individually for seven days. The
remaining groups represented the control groups, one was the positive
group while the other group was the negative control. Afterwards, the
treated groups and the positive control group were irradiated with 600
rad gamma radiation, and the duodenum of the all mice were excised
after three days for histological preparation. The mucosal thickness was
measured in mm and the number of viable crypts were counted per mm.
The data gathered were tabulated and analyzed with the use of ANOVA
and Student's T-test. Results showed that the negative group of mice
obtained the highest number of viable crypts at 21.4 crypts/mm and the
thickest mucosa at 0.60424mm. It was also observed that the positive
group obtained the lowest number of viable crypts at 11.6 crypts/mm
and the thinnest mucosa at 0.54048mm. The group treated with raw
tomato has lesser number of viable crypts at 14.6 crypts/mm and thinner
mucosal thickness at 0.57504mm when compared with the group
treated with tomato sauce, with 20.6 viable crypts/mm and 0.58848mm
mucosal thickness. It was revealed that commercial tomato sauce
imparts a more effective radioprotection of the intestinal mucosa than
raw tomato.
