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ABSTRACT
Asthma is a obstructive airway disease featured by chronic airway inflammation and remodeling which results in a range of clinical presentations, treatment responses and natural history of a patient. It is characterized by chronic inflammation of respiratory tubes, tightening of respiratory smooth muscle and episodes of bronchoconstriction. Montelukast, a highly selective leukotriene receptor antagonist that binds with high affinity to the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor for leukotrienes D4 and E4 (Castro-Rodriguez et al., 2018) is approved by various drug agencies for the therapeutic management of asthma. Prednisolone is an oral corticosteroid used to treat certain types of allergies, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disorders, and cancers (Stuart et al., 2009). Asthma is known to elicit anemia of inflammation as it is a chronic disease capable of causing the complication. Red cell indices is a suitable marker to ascertain this fact. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of montelukast and prednisolone on the red cell indices in asthma induced Sprague-Dawley rats. This study was designed to utilize twenty (20) female Sprague-dawley rats duly divided into 2 main groups (control and test groups). Control group was subdivided into: Group 1 positive control - not induced with asthma and Group 2 negative control - induced with asthma but not treated. While the test group was divided into: Group 3 (asthma induced and treated with montelukast 10mg/kg) and Group 4 (asthma induced and treated prednisolone 5mg/kg) with 5 rats in each group. Asthma was induced by sensitizing the rats with ovalbumin (100ug) and Aluminium hydroxide while challenging with ovalbumin 0.5% w/v (dissolved in 100mg/ml aluminum hydroxide and saline) was carried out three times every week for 4 weeks, with a Medal family nebulizer. The study showed that asthma significantly altered the red cell indices measured (Mean cell volume, Mean cell Hemoglobin and Mean cell Hemoglobin Concentration) except for the Hematocrit and Red cell Distribution width and is consistent with anemia due to inflammation. Montelukast and prednisolone positively affects the parameters gradually bringing them to normal levels.
