Ishizuka, S., Ito, S., Kasai, T. and Hara, H. Dietary Sugar Beet Fiber Ameliorates Diarrhea as an Acute Gamma-Radiation Injury in Rats.

Gamma radiation induces diarrhea as an acute injury. We have studied whether ingestion of sugar beet fiber influences radiation-induced diarrhea. Abdominal irradiation with γ rays induced diarrhea in male Wistar/ST rats from 2 to 7 days after a single sublethal dose. The body weight of the irradiated rats was decreased temporarily at 4 days after irradiation regardless of the ingestion of sugar beet fiber. At day 8, it returned to almost the same level as that of unirradiated rats. A change in daily food intake resulted in a pattern similar to that for body weight. Dietary sugar beet fiber had little significant effect on the changes in body weight and daily food intake, and its ingestion significantly decreased γ-ray-induced diarrhea. Changes in biochemical and histological parameters in intestinal mucosa (small intestine, cecum and colon) were not greatly influenced by the ingestion of sugar beet fiber through the periods of diarrhea. It was concluded that dietary sugar beet fiber ameliorated the diarrhea induced by abdominal irradiation. We suggest that the inhibitory effect of the ingestion of sugar beet fiber is due to its effects on the luminal environment, such as support for bacterial function in the luminal contents in the colon of animals that ingest sugar beet fiber.