Research progress on animal models of oral mucositis caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy

Inflammation of the oral mucosa induced by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy may cause pain, difficulty speaking and swallowing, an increased risk of local and systemic infections, and even interrupt cancer treatment, which can seriously affect a patient′s quality of life. The pathogenesis of oral mucositis is complicated. There is still a lack of prevention and treatment modalities for oral mucositis in the clinic. Animal models play a vital role in exploring the pathogenesis of oral mucositis and developing better prevention and treatment methods. This article reviews the current research progress on the establishment and assessment of animal models of oral mucositis. The literature review results showed that animal models of oral mucositis have been established, such as mouse, rat, and gold hamster models. In the replication of animal models, radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis is generally induced by local single-dose or fractionated irradiation using X-ray equipment, either alone or in combination with the chemotherapy drugs 5-fluorouracil or cisplatin; cesium can also be used used as a radioactive source for local irradiation. Oral mucositis induced by the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil alone is generally mild, so 5-fluorouracil was combined with mechanical trauma or acetic acid. The main methods for assessing oral mucositis are gross observation as well as histopathological observation.