Abstract
Cancer is emerging as one of the most significant challenges to the human health. Ivermectin (IVM) is one of the most effective drugs in veterinary and human medicine. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential preventative effect of IVM against cytotoxicity induced by dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in Male Wistar rats. Three concentrations of IVM (0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) were utilized in this study. Liver function enzymes, inflammatory markers and histopathological alterations in liver and kidney tissues were investigated. Obtained data showed that the combination of DMH with each concentration of IVM increased the activity of liver enzymes (ALT, ALP, AST, and GGT) compared to control and DMH alone. RT-PCR findings showed upregulation in the level of INF-c, IL-6, IL-1b, Cox1, and Cox2 genes compared to control. In contrast, IL-6 gene was down-regulated. The levels of genes expression were down-regulated with combined DMH with medium and high concentrations compared to DMH alone. Microscopic anal-ysis demonstrated histological alterations in the liver and kidney of rats treated with DMH. Combinations of DMH either with medium or high concentration resulted in less pathological features in both liver and kidney tissues. In conclusion, this study showed that IVM mitigated the toxic effects of DMH on the liver and kidney of male Wistar rats. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).