The Effects of Dawood Fasting on The Morphology of Intestinal Mucosa in Balb/c Mice

Introduction: Long-term fasting (>24 hours) can result in mucosal atrophy, reduced number of goblet cells (GCs) and Peyer’s patches (PPs), and changes in the gut microbiota. This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference in the morphology of intestinal mucosa between mice treated with Dawood fasting and those fed an ad libitum (AL) diet. Methods: An experimental study used ten mice (BALB/c) divided into two groups. One group was given food and drink AL (the AL group). The treatment group (the F group) fasted intermittently in 14-hour (5 p.m. to 7 a.m.) every other day. The study was conducted for 56 days. The faeces from the intestine were diluted 100-fold and cultured for microbiota colony counts. Haematoxylin and eosin staining was performed to observe the villus length (VL) and the area of PPs, and periodic acid-Schiff staining was used to examine the number of GCs. Results: There were no significant differences in the VL, GCs, PPs and the number of microbiota between the F group and the AL group with the respective p = 0.26 (369.54 ± 48.41 vs 307.16 ± 61.16) μm, p = 0.33 (10.42 ± 1.27 vs 9.15 ± 2.44), p = 0.8 (0.164 ± 0.069 vs 0.159 ± 0.089) mm2, and p = 0.64 (1.85 ± 0.97 vs 2.22 ± 1.43) CFU/ml. Conclusion: Dawood fasting has no effect on the histopathological condition of the intestinal mucosa, including the VL, GCs count, area of PPs and the number of microbiota in mice.