ABSTRACT
The present study was aimed to compare the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of two antidepressant drugs; desipramine and fluoxetine, administered in two different doses, on experimentally induced colitis in rats. Two doses for each drug [10, 20 mg/kg/d] were injected intraperitoneally in forty eight adult male albino rats for 2 weeks after induction of colitis by intra-colonic administration of 2ml 3% acetic acid. Several parameters including, macroscopic [ulcer score index], microscopic [histological] and biochemical such as myeloperoxidase [MPO], reduced glutathione [GSH], tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-alpha] and interleukin-1 Beta [IL-1beta] were measured using standard assay procedures. The study demonstrated that both desipramine and fluoxetine significantly attenuated the extent and the severity of the macroscopic and microscopic histological signs of cell damage. Both drugs significantly reduced tissue MPO activity in a dose dependent manner. Both desipramine and fluoxetine at either dose increased significantly the GSH in colonic tissue. On the contrary, both desipramine and fluoxetine significantly reduced TNF-alpha and IL-beta in a dose dependent manner. However, desipramine at the dose of 20 mg/kg produced more decrease in the level of TNF-alpha compared to the effect of the smaller dose, and on the contrary, fluoxetine at the dose of 10 mg/kg showed more decrease in the level of IL-beta compared to the effect of the larger dose. The available data indicate that both desipramine and fluoxetine have anti-inflammatory and antioxidants effects in experimentally induced colitis in rats opening the avenue to their possible protective role in patients with inflammatory bowel disease