![]() | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The fusion of the applications of nanotechnology with medicine provides amazing advances in different fields such as regenerative medicine and theranostic tools. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONPs) show numerous promising applications due to their regenerative ability as antioxidants in addition to anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties. Investigating the potential hazardous effect of doxorubicin has been a point of interest in the research work as it is well documented that marked hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, renal, hematological and testicular toxicities were associated with its administration. Oxidative stress has been suggested to be the main mechanism of toxicity caused by doxorubicin. Therefore, using antioxidants played an important role in ameliorating their toxic effects in previous studies. However, to the best of our knowledge, the possible protective role of cerium oxide nanoparticles against the toxic effects of doxorubicin was not yet investigated in-vivo. In the current study, hepatic insult was chosen as it affects not only liver function in 40% of patients receiving DOX, but also it may affect DOX metabolism and clearance as the liver is the main organ concerned with DOX detoxification. Thus, the aim of the present study is to verify the in vivo efficacy of CeONPs to mitigate doxorubicin-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The present study was carried out on 40 adult male albino rats (6−8 weeks old), each with an average weight of 200±20 g. In a study that extended for two weeks, rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (10 rats each): • group I (control) where rats received 250 µl of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) intraperitoneally IP every other day. • group II (CeO) that received IP injections of CeONPs suspension at a dose of 0.5mg/kg once per week. • group III (DOX) in which rats were injected IP with DOX solution at a dose of 2.5mg/kg every other day. • group IV (DOX+ CeO) that received CeONPs and DOX simultaneously. Animals were weighed (in grams) on days 1, 8 and 14 to determine body weight changes during the course of treatment. Cerium oxide nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showing multifaceted particles that depicted various shapes with the average size range of 24.06±8.27nm and tendency to agglomerate. Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-Vis) provided information about the oxidation state of CeONPs used in this study. CeONPs suspended in distilled water had a positive zeta potential (ZP) of 24.5±7.79 mV and average size of 99.82±0.15 |