Journal of Cytology & Histology

Effects of Kurdistan Honey on the Tongue of Chemotherapy Treated Albino Rats Immunohistochemical Study)

Abstract

Ali Sultan Al-Refai, Lukman Fawzi and Ameera Kamal Khalil

Background and Objectives: Mucositis can be a dose-limiting toxicity of cancer chemotherapy with direct effects on patient survival; therefore an effective intervention is considered a high priority in cancer patient. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of honey as a preventive treatment for the methotrexate (MTX) induced oral mucositis.
Materials and Methods: In current study forty females Albino rats, weighing 250-300 g were used in the study. For the induction of oral mucositis, 60 mg/kg of MTX was administered intraperitoneally to each animal in the study group at day 4. The control animals were intraperitoneally injected by normal saline in the same manner and dose like MTX. At the beginning of the experiment, the rats in each group were randomly divided into two groups: Distilled water treated group and honey treated group (10 animals each). A volume of distilled water equal to honey was given by intragastric gavage tube, while the other group was gavaged with honey at a dose of 2.5 g /kg two times daily (with a total of 5 g/kg/day). The animals were sacrificed at day 8. In each experiment, the middle third of tongue was removed for histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis using Ki-67 and Bcl-2 immunolabeling.
Results: The result showed that, the MTX/honey group showed a significant increase in the thickness of the epithelium (p<0.01), significant decrease in the number of congested blood vessels in the connective tissue of rat tongue mucosa (p<0.01), non significant increase in the Ki-67 immune expression (p>0.01), and significant increase in Bcl- 2 immune expression (p<0.01) in comparison with the methotrexate/water group.
Conclusion: Natural honey at a concentration of (5 g/ kg/day) produced protection against methotrexate induced tongue mucositis and therefore can be used as a protective natural product to oral mucosa against methotrexate induced cytotoxicity.