Investigation of the radioprotective effect of arbutin on radiation-induced lung injury in rats: a histopathological study

Background: Radiaton-induced lung injury is a common complicaton after esophageal, breast, etc. cancer radiotherapy. We aimed to evaluate the radioprotectve effect of arbutn on acute radiaton-induced lung damage in male rats. Materials and Methods: Fifty-two male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups: (i) control group (n = 10), (ii) vehicle group (n = 10, received distlled water intraperitoneally (ip)), (iii) X-irradiaton only (n=16, chest was irradiated to a single dose of 20 Gy x-rays) and (iv) arbutn + X-irradiaton (n=16, 75 mg/kg of arbutn 2 hours before irradiaton (ip), and then their chest was exposed to 20 Gy x-rays). For histopathological investgaton, 8 animals of each group were sacrificed 8 weeks after treatment and the rest of them were sacrificed 3 months after treatment. Results: The histopathological analysis in 8 weeks after X-irradiaton showed that there was a significant increase in inflammatory in X-irradiaton only group compared to control group. The administraton of arbutn 2 hours prior to X-irradiaton significantly reduced inflammaton and inflammatory factors such as macrophages, mast cell and neutrophil in arbutn + X-irradiaton group compared to X-irradiaton only group (P<0.05). The histopathologic investgaton performed 3 months after lung irradiaton indicated a significant reducton in fibrosis formaton in arbutn + X-irradiaton group compared to irradiaton only group (P<0.05). Localized chest X-irradiaton with 20 Gy caused histopathologic damage to the lungs for short-term. Conclusion: Arbutn has a great potental in reducing the histopathologic damage to lung tssue after thoracic irradiaton. © 2020 Novin Medical Radiation Institute. All rights reserved.