ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to determine whether growth hormone treatment reduces injury to the intestinal mucosa induced by methotrexate (MTX). Wistar rats with intestinal injury induced by methotrexate were treated with daily growth hormone, beginning 3 days before MTX treatment until 3 or 4 days after MTX administration. The rats were killed at 3 or 7 days post-MTX administration. The rats were fed with either a normoproteic diet or a hyperproteic diet. Body weight, mortality, bacterial translocation, intestinal morphometry, proliferation and apoptosis and blood somatostatin and IGF-1 were determined. Combined administration of growth hormone and a hyperproteic diet reduces MTX-induced mortality. This effect was accompanied by increased cell proliferation and decreased apoptosis within the crypt. Morphometric data showed complete recovery of the mucosa by day 7 post-MTX administration. These results indicate a synergistic protective action of growth hormone combined with a hyperproteic diet to MTX-induced injury.
Subject(s)
Dietary Proteins/therapeutic use , Human Growth Hormone/therapeutic use , Intestinal Diseases/prevention & control , Intestinal Mucosa/drug effects , Malabsorption Syndromes/prevention & control , Methotrexate/toxicity , Animals , Apoptosis/drug effects , Atrophy , Bacterial Translocation/drug effects , Body Weight/drug effects , Cell Division/drug effects , Dietary Proteins/pharmacology , Drug Evaluation , Human Growth Hormone/pharmacology , Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/analysis , Intestinal Diseases/chemically induced , Intestinal Mucosa/pathology , Ki-67 Antigen/analysis , Malabsorption Syndromes/chemically induced , Male , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Recombinant Proteins/pharmacology , Recombinant Proteins/therapeutic use , Somatostatin/blood , Somatostatin-28ABSTRACT
An epidemiological study on toxocariasis in children was carried out at our hospital (Madrid, Spain) in relation with a case of toxocariasis in a child with chronic hypereosinophilia. The study was based on a positive result of the ELISA test, using excretory-secretory antigen from Toxocara canis. The seroprevalence in children was 1%.
