Vitamin levels in lung tissue of rats with bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis

Abstract

Bleomycin (BLM) is a chemotherapeutic agent against different carcinomas, one dose of which causes dependent pulmonary fibrosis. The present study was taken up in order to measure the retinyl ester, α-tocopherol and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) level in lung tissue in the rats following BLM-induced fibrosis. Fourteen rats were randomly divided into two groups as a control and a BLM group. On the day of the experiment, the BLM group rats were instilled with BLM (7.5 mg/kg) and the control group with sterile saline intratracheally. Fourteen days after instillation, rats in each group were sacrificed and the lungs were prepared for histopathological examination and determination of the vitamin levels with a HPLC system. The levels of retinyl ester, α-tocopherol and vitamin D3 in the lungs of the BLM group were determined to be lower than in the controls. There was statistically significant difference for the α-tocopherol and vitamin D3 concentrations compared to the control group (p<0.01, p<0.001), respectively. According to these results in pulmonary fibrosis, vitamins were consumed by the lung tissue and their levels decreased.