Multifunctional Zinc Glycyrrhizinate-Integrated Gel for Enhanced Probiotic Delivery and Alleviation of Acute and Spontaneous Colitis

Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis is a widely used animal model to simulate IBD. In this study, 8-week-old female BALB/c mice were fed with 3% DSS for 1 week. Mice were randomly divided into 4 groups and received ZGM, L. reuteri (2*10^9 CFUs/day), L. reuteri@ZGM, or PBS orally for 5 days. After treatment of the colitis mouse model, 2 - 3 feces were collected from each mouse (including healthy, untreated mice serving as controls) and analyzed by 16S rDNA sequencing on the NovaSeq platform. All animal experiments were approved by the Committee for Experimental Animals Welfare and Ethics of Hunan University (HNU-IACUC-2021-102).