Protective Role of Omega-3 Fish Oil against the Toxicity of Ifosfamide in Male Rats

Ifosfamide IFO) is a cytotoxic alkylating drug used for the treatment of a variety of cancers but has reported to cause certain hematological, hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic side effects. For protection against these side effects, different antioxidants were used. This study is performed to evaluate the ability of omega-3 fatty acids (Omega-3 FAs) to attenuate ifosfamide (IFO) toxicity. Thirty male albino rats were randomly divided into six groups. Group 1: control, Group 2: omega-3 (4gm/kg diet), Group 3: IFO (50mg/kg b.wt.), Group 4: IFO(80mg/kg b.wt.), Group 5: IFO (50mg/kg b.wt.) plus omega-3, Group 6: IFO (80mg/kg b.wt.) plus omega-3. Ifosfamide was administrated intraperitoneally (i.p.), while omega-3 was given with the diet. The duration was five consecutive days for IFO, and six consecutive days for omega-3 oil. A significant increase in the body weight gain of the rats has been recorded after applying omega-3 to both doses of IFO when compared to each IFO group. In the IFO group, the levels of serum creatinine, phosphorous, glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were increased, while serum glucose decreased significantly. In the Omega-3 and IFO plus omega-3 groups, these variations didn’t show significant changes. Hematologically, Omega-3 has recovered the decrease in WBC, RBC and blood platelets caused by IFO after giving omega-3 to the IFO treated rats. IFO has induced many histological alterations in the liver such as degeneration of the cells, inflammatory cells infiltration and dilation in the sinusoidal lumen, while it caused severe inflammation, degeneration in the kidney tubule lining cells and hypertrophy of these tubules. The histological structure of liver and kidney was found to be protected from this effect of IFO when a combination of Omega-3 FAs and IFO was administrated. Interestingly, Omega-3 didn’t interfere with the antimitotic property of IFO, suggesting a very important role of this oil in the future of cancer chemotherapy