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Background: The study is designed to investigate the protective effect of erdosteine on the inflammation of rat lung exposed to radiation.
Methods: Fifty rats were divided in five groups according to their treatment. Group A consisted of 12 rats with no treatment, 6 rats in Group B were treated with ether only, 10 rats in Group C were treated with erdosteine only, 10 rats in Group D were treated with radiation only and 10 rats in Group E were treated with erdosteine and radiation. The follow-up period was 60 days for all rats and the rats in Groups C and E are treated with erdosteine 600mg per day and rats in Groups D and E received 20 Gy radiation in one fraction under ether anesthesia on the 30th day of the study. On the 60th day of the study all rats were sacri- fied and both lungs are taken out en-bloc. The bronchoalveolar lavage and histological examination were performed on all rats. Pulmonary collapse, alveolar distension, oedema, congestion, bronchopneumonia, vascular hyperplasia and lymphoid hyperplasia were investigated and graded from 0 to 4.
Results: Two rats in group B and one rat in group C were lost during the follow-up period. The cytological examination of the BAL fluid showed no difference in collected cells in groups A,B and C but, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts were found in groups D and E as 53%; 6% and 30%; 22%, respectively (p<0.05). In the histological examination all parameters in group E were found lower than those in group D but, this difference did not reach a significant level.
Conclusion: It has been found that erdosteine has diminished the neutrophil accumulation in the lungs following radiation but, this effect has not been observed in the histological analysis because of limited number of rats and limited period of time.