Effect of Ifosfamide on corneal genetic material and the role of lecithin and quercetin

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the possible roles of lecithin and quercetin either singly or combined against Ifosfamide-induced DNA damage in corneas. Healthy female Rattus norvegicus rats weighing 180 ±10 gwere divided into seven groups eachcomprised of ten rats. Group I served as control and intraperitoneally injected with 0.25 mlof physiological saline (0.9% NaCl)for 5 days. Groups II and III wereorally administered lecithin at a dose of100 mg/kg body weight or quercetin at a dose of 50 mg/kgbody weight suspended indistilled water, respectively for six days; whereasgroup IV was used as positive control and intraperitoneally injected with Ifosfamide at a dose of 80mg/kg body weight for five days.Groups V and VI were injected with either quercetin orlecithin along with Ifosfamide by the same treatmentregimens, respectively. Group VII received a combination of both protective agents alongwith Ifosfamide and treated similarly. Corneas from all groups were used for comet assay. Results: The lecithin and quercetin treated groups were characterized by normal comet parameters compared to control. After Ifosfamide injection, all comet parameters were significantly increased (p˂0.05). No changes in comet parameters were observed for lecithin-Ifosfamide treated group as well as for quercetin-Ifosfamide one. Co-administration of lecithin and quercetin indicate significant increase (p˂0.05) in all comet parameters (group VII). All together led to conclude that Ifosfamide causes DNA damage of rat cornea due to its oxidative stress and, co-administration of lecithin and quercetin was contradicting each other while using these antioxidants separately has beneficial effects on corneal genetic material.