The use of wireless capsule enteroscopy in a preclinical study: a novel diagnostic tool for indomethacin-induced gastrointestinal injury in experimental pigs.

OBJECTIVES: The aim was the utilization of capsule microscopy and other diagnostic techniques for prospective pre-clinical research of absorption and biotransformation mechanisms of xenobiotics in the intestinal wall after induction of gastrointestinal dysfunction. Consequently, there is a demonstration of the extrems of gastrointestinal lesions development induced with indomethacin as a representative of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

METHODS: The experimental animal species were small adult pigs (n=10; body weight 30-35 kg; 4-5 months old) used for their relative physiological and metabolic resemblance to man. The following experimental methods were used for diagnostic verification of gastrointestinal lesions (damage scale: 1 - erosions, red spots, inflammatory infiltration, 2 - single ulcers, 3 - strings of ulcers): endoscopic image for the diagnostics of gastro-duodenal segment (in vivo conditions), confocal laser microscopy (ex vivo imaging) and optical light microscopy (in vitro), small intestinal imaging by means of wireless capsule enteroscopy (in vivo), macroscopic findings and optical light microscopy (after animal sacrifice).

RESULTS: The mutual confrontation of used methodological approaches proved the conformity in the frequency and extent of damage in the gastric wall and caecum, partly in the duodenal wall and terminal ileum. The signs of first-degree damage were discovered in the jejunal-ileal segment.

CONCLUSIONS: The scale of lesions in particular gastrointestinal segments was verified using the combination of five diagnostic techniques for prospective utilisation of non-invasive capsule enteroscopy for the through-control of mucosal state.