EJMS

Abstract

Background: Bleomycin is a chemotherapeutic antibiotic. It is an important anticancer drug that is used in management of many cancer mainly lymphomas as well as carcinoma of the testis .One of the major adverse effect of this cancer therapy is pulmonary fibrosis. Aim of the work: to demonstrate the bleomycin induced histological alterations in the lung and evaluate the role of methyl- prednisolone vs forskolin or both against these changes. Material and methods: This study was carried out on forty eight adult male albino rats. The animals were divided into 6 equal groups Group I (control group): received no medication. Group II Sham control: Group III: received single intratracheal instillation of bleomycine. Group IV: received Methyl-perdinsoline intraperitoneally two days before the BLM injection and it was given in the same dose for 14 days. Group V: received forskolin intraperitoneally two days before the BLM injection and drug was administered in the same dose for 14 days. Group VI: received forskolin and Methyl-prednisolone intraperitoneally two days before the bleomycine injection and drugs were administered in the same dose for 14 days. At the end of the experiment, the rats of each group were anesthetized then sacrificed by cervical dislocation and the lung was excised and dissected. The sections were subjected to light microscopic study using H&E stain, Masson's trichrome stain and Immunohistochemichal staining for alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Results: lung sections from rat of bleomycin treated group (group III) showed distorted pulmonary architecture with mononuclear cellular infiltration and increase in collagen fibers depositions within the intealveolar septa and around bronchioles. Examination of the lung sections of group III stained with anti-α-smooth muscle actin antibody revealed strong immunoreactivity. Group IV demonstrated moderate improvement in these histological alterations. Combination of prednisolone and forskolin in group VI showed marked improvement in all changes resulted from bleomycin administration. Conclusion: combination of prednisolone and forskolin resulted in marked improvement of histological changes in bleomycine-induced lung fibrosis as compared with prednisolone or forskolin alone.