Effect of the Anticancer Drug Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) on Antioxidant Studies and Ultrastructural Investigation in the Liver, Kidney, and Heart Tissues of Male Rats
Authors: Kewedar Said M.R. 
Published: April 2023

Doxorubicin is a well-known antineoplastic agent that has proved to be successful in the treatment of various types of cancer. I used rats as the model to evaluate the effect of doxorubicin on antioxidant studies and ultrastructural investigations in the liver, kidney, and heart tissues. Male albino rats were given 1.0 mg/kg body weight of the anticancer drug doxorubicin intraperitoneally three times a week for 52 days. This was for a total of 18 doses. Control animals received 52 doses of 0.5 ml of saline over 52 days. The body weights of rats injected with doxorubicin experienced a significant decrease after the last dose compared to the control group of rats. In this study, the weights of the heart, kidneys, and liver were measured. Except for cardiac tissues, the protein content in the aforementioned tissues in treated rats was significantly different from the control. Glutathione (GSH) levels in the kidneys of experimental rats were not significantly lower (7.946 ± 0.781) compared to controls (8.06 ± 0.74) but there was a non-significant increase in GSH levels in the liver (17.095 ± 1.066) compared to controls (13.8 ± 1.3). In addition, the mean GSH levels in doxorubicin-treated hearts were significantly lower (7.9462 ± 0.781) compared to controls (8.06 ± 0.74). Lipid peroxidation (Lpx) and malondialdehyde content (MDA), a marker of lipid peroxidation, were found in much lower concentrations in the liver organ of the doxorubicin-treated group (0.0162 ± 0.00086) as compared to (0.20 ± 0.02) controls, and MDA content in the kidney was decreased (0.0239 ± 0.0003) compared to control rats (0.31 ± 0.03), as well as heat production (0.0398 ± 0.00097) compared to (47.451 ± 1.708) controls. Glutathione reductase (GR) levels were significantly elevated in the same tissue treatment group. Glutathione-S-Transferase (G-S-T) activity was assessed and significantly increased in all tissues in the doxorubicin model. Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity showed a significant decrease in all the above tissues after doxorubicin injection. The catalase (CAT) activity of doxorubicin was greatly increased in one treated rat. In the doxorubicin-treated group, levels of cytochrome p450 (CYTp450) were significantly decreased in liver and kidney tissue and significantly elevated in heart tissue. After doxorubicin treatment, cytochrome b5 (CYTb5) levels in liver tissues increased significantly (837.177± 61.197) compared to controls (615 ± 37.0), and the contents of cytochrome b5 in rats' kidneys increased significantly (447.685 ± 35.215) compared to controls (2605.5± 259.2). and cytochrome b5 in heart tissues was lower (165.352± 8.7) when compared to controls (88± 0.4). The results showed that there were few obvious changes in histological, ultrastructural, and biochemical changes in liver tissue in the doxorubicin model. Long-term doxorubicin treatment in kidney tissue results in no significant changes at the light microscopic level, but the electron microscopic level reveals no change from a histological point of view.