Effect of adriamycin [doxorubicin] on the developing post natal rat lung

ABSTRACT

It was claimed that adriamycin administration in combination with other cytotoxic drugs provided a controlled preoperative surgical management of different types of tumours, besides the treatment of wide variety of sarcomas and carcinomas. So, this work aimed to study adriamycin effects on the early postnatal developing lung in rats to approach a near idea about the changes affecting the early postnatal developing human lung after treatment with adriamycin. In this study, 50 new born white rats were used. The animals were divided into 2 groups. The first group included 10 animals injected intraperitoneally with saline and were regarded as controls. The second experimental group included 40 newborn white rats injected within two hours after birth with adriamycin with a dose equivalent to human therapeutic dose [0.01 mg/rat]. Paraffin sections were prepared in usual manner and stained for histological study. Morphometric and statistical study was done. The mean thickness of the inter alveolar septa was measured. The measurements were done by using the image analysis. Student's t test was used to compare the mean thickness of the inter alveolar septa in control and treated groups. It was found that adriamycin caused morphologic changes in the studied ages. In 3 and 5 days treated rats, dilated air passages with interrupted walls were seen. Shed cells and red blood cells were seen in dilated alveolar lumena. More dense [hypercellularity] interstitial cells occurred, damaged pneumocytes with vacuolated cytoplasm and deeply stained nuclei were noted. The blood air barrier structural pattern was lost and interrupted. At 5 days treated animals, intrapulmonary more folded mucosa was noted. The mean thickness of the inter alveolar septa showed a significant increase at 3 days treated rats; while there was insignificant increase in the inter alveolar septa at 5 days treated animals. It was concluded that adriamycin affected the early postnatal developing rat lung; so it should be avoided in human