THE EFFECTS OF MONTELUKAST AND PREDNISOLONE ON THE HISTOLOGY OF THE HEART, LUNGS AND AORTA

ABSTRACT

Asthma is a prevalent respiratory condition that is characterized by chronic airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction, often accompanied by systemic inflammation. Pharmacological interventions such as Montelukast and Prednisolone are commonly used to manage asthma, but their impact in extra-pulmonary tissues still remains less explored. This study is aimed to investigate the effect of Montelukast and Prednisolone on the histology of the heart, lungs and aorta in asthma induced Sprague-dawley rats. To achieve this, a total of 80 Sprague-dawley rats were used for this study, which were divided into two (2) main groups (control and test groups). Group 1 control - not induced with asthma, Group 2 negative control - induced with asthma but not treated. While the test groups were divided into: Group 3 (asthma induced and treated with montelukast) and Group 4 (asthma induced and treated prednisolone), with 20 rats per group. Asthma was induced by sensitizing all experimental groups (2, 3, and 4) with 1 mg OVA and 200 mg aluminum hydroxide dissolved in 0.9 saline on day 0 and 7, challenged with OVA (1 % w/v, adsorbed in 0.9 saline) twice weekly from day 7 of treatment until the last day with a Medel family of nebulizer. During the period of challenged, the tested groups were being treated with 10mg/kg of montelukast and 3mg/kg of prednisolone (oral) and at the end of the experiment, the heart, lungs and aorta were harvested and fixed in 10% formaldehyde solution, embedded in paraffin and then subjected to histopathological study. Results revealed that negative control group showed congestion of the interstitium with chronic inflammatory cells in the lungs, and presence of acute inflammatory cells in montelukast and prednisolone lung tissue groups. Moreover, examination of the heart and aorta proved minimal histological alterations in all groups, indicating that Montelukast and Prednisolone treatment did not induce noticeable extrapulmonary effects. In conclusion, these findings suggest that Montelukast and Prednisolone exert distinct ameliorate and immunomodulatory effect on the lung tissue.