Histological and immunohistochemical study on the possible therapeutic role of stem cells and curcumin in cyclophosphamide-induced cardiotoxicity in adult male albino rat

Introduction: Cyclophosphamide (CP) is used as a chemotherapeutic and an immunosuppressive agent. CP is known to cause multiple organ toxicity; the most obvious is cardiotoxicity. Aim: Possibile therapeutic effect on bone marrow -derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in ameliorating CP- induced cardiotoxicity compared with Curcumin in albino rats. Methods: Fifty male albino rats were divided into five groups: group I received intraperitoneal injection of sterile water; group II received oral curcumin (200 mg/kg); group III received only one intraperitoneal injection of CP (200 mg/kg) and were sacrificed on day 40; group IV received the same treatment as group III followed by oral administration of curcumin from day 10 and were sacrificed on day 40; group V received the same treatment as group III followed by a single BM- MSCs injection intraperitoneally at a dose of 1×106 cells/ rat on day 10 and were sacrificed on day 40. Results: Histological structure of the cardiac muscle by light and electron microscopic examination revealed marked structural changes in rats treated with CP alone. Improvement in BM-MSCs group more than curcumin treated group was observed. Immunohistochemical staining of the cardiac muscle showed strong positive immunoreactivity for caspase-3 in group III compared to the control and other groups. Also, BM-MSCs extensively reduced the amount of collagen fibers compared with other groups. Conclusion: The use of curcumin has a limited beneficial effect on the protection of cardiac muscle against CP toxicity compared with stem cells.