Abstract
The anticancer activity of calcium chloride was evaluated from the total count and viability of Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cells and their proteins, nucleic acid, malondialdehyde (MDA) and Nonprotein sulfhydryl (NP-SH) groups in addition to observations on survival and the body weight changes. The tumors at site of injection were investigated for histopathological changes. The treatment with calcium chloride (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day) caused cytotoxic activity. These data are substantiated by biochemical and histopathological changes and are attributed to calcium ions, which are known to disrupt calcium homeostasis, produce ROS, damage mitochondria and cause DNA breaks. Nevertheless, these data were not in agreement with the results on survival and body weight of the same animals. Treatment at the higher doses of calcium chloride increased the body weight and restricted the life span much earlier than the lower dose of calcium chloride and ADM. The discrepancy between these results might be due to the difference in the time of observation. While the experiments on cytotoxic activity, biochemical investigation and histopathology were conducted 10 and 5 days after the implantation of EAC cells and treatment, respectively, the observations on body weight and mortality were continued until death of all the animals or up to a maximum of 50 days. Data obtained in the present study demonstrate that treatment of calcium chloride at the higher doses had no influence on body weight and cause mortality as a long term effect, which might be due to co-morbidity of several diseases, caused by hypercalcemia and impairment of mitochondria. Further experiments are warranted on the use of a sufficient number of lower doses of calcium chloride to determine a pharmacologically effective and non-toxic dose.