**Effect of a Milk-Based Fruit Beverage Enriched with Plant Sterols and/or Galactooligosaccharides in a Murine Chronic Colitis Model**

**Gabriel <sup>L</sup>ópez-García 1, Antonio Cilla 1,\*, Reyes Barberá 1, Amparo Alegría 1 and María C. Recio 2**


Received: 7 March 2019; Accepted: 1 April 2019; Published: 4 April 2019

**Abstract:** The potential anti-inflammatory effect of plant sterols (PS) enriched milk-based fruit beverages (PS, 1 g/100 mL) (MfB) with/without galactooligosaccharides (GOS, 2 g/100 mL) (MfB-G) in an experimental mice model of chronic ulcerative colitis was evaluated. Beverages were orally administered to mice every day by gavage to achieve PS and GOS doses of 35 and 90 mg/kg, respectively, and experimental colitis was induced by giving mice drinking water *ad libitum* containing 2% (*w*/*v*) dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) for 7 days, alternating with periods without DSS up to the end of the study (56 days). MfB beverage showed significant reduction of symptoms associated to ulcerative colitis and improved the colon shortening and mucosal colonic damage, but it was not able to reduce the increase of myeloperoxidase levels produced by DSS. MfB-G showed higher incidence of bloody feces and loss of stool consistency than MfB, as well as high levels of immune cells infiltration in colon tissue and myeloperoxidase. Therefore, PS-enriched milk-based fruit beverage could be an interesting healthy food to extend the remission periods of the diseases and the need to evaluate, in a pre-clinical model, the anti-inflammatory effect of the combination of bioactive compounds in the context of a whole food matrix.

**Keywords:** milk-based fruit beverage; plant sterols; galactooligosaccharides; mice; chronic ulcerative colitis
