The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of bovine colostrum on 5-fluorouracil-induced oral mucositis in rats.

Twenty-four male Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into three groups as the Preoperative, Postoperative and Control groups. All rats were administered 100 mg/kg 5-fluorouracil on the first day and 65 mg/kg 5-FU on the third day intraperitoneally. On the third and fifth days, a superficial incision was created on the mucosa of the right cheek pouch. The oral mucositis protocol was applied in the control group. The preoperative group was given bovine colostrum by gavage from the 1st day of the 5-FU procedure to the 5th day, while the postoperative group was given bovine colostrum by gavage from the 5th day to the 10th day.

According to the scoring made in terms of secondary infections, two cases in the control group had moderate infections, and two cases in each of the preoperative and postoperative groups had severe infections. The difference between the control group and the preoperative and postoperative groups was significant (p=0.020). There was no significant difference between the preoperative and postoperative groups. While the degree of wound healing in the postoperative group was higher than the other groups, the difference was not statistically significant.

No significant effect of bovine colostrum on the healing of oral mucositis was observed. Additional studies are needed to shed light on the pathogenic inflammatory mechanisms in mucositis and the prophylactic and therapeutic roles of antioxidants.