“…Daily evaluation of the colitis severity was performed with disease activity index (DAI) scores, which are the sums of the scores for body weight loss (0 ≦ 5%, 1 = 5-10%, 2 = 11-15%, 3 = 16-20%), stool consistency (0 = normal, 1 = soft but still formed, 2 = very soft, 3 = diarrhea), and rectal bleeding (0 = no blood, 1 = occult blood in stool, 2 = trace of blood visible in stool, 3 = rectal bleeding), and scoring was performed blindly by at least two independent investigators. 9,13) In the following experiments, 10 mice in each group were divided equally (5 mice/group) into histological and biochemical examinations, and their DAI scores were almost the same between the two examinations (DAI scores on Day 11 were 0.6 ± 0.894 and 0.4 ± 0.548 in control group, 5 ± 0.707 and 3.6 ± 1.14 in DSS group, 0.6 ± 0.548 and 0.2 ± 0.447 in MgO group, and 3.6 ± 1.67 and 3.4 ± 1.52 in MgO + DSS group, respectively).…”