The Protective Effects of Gadolinum Chloride on Pneumotoxic Effects of Styrene in Rat

Objective: the aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects of gadolinumon pneumotoxic effects of styrene in rats as an experimental model.materials and methods: in this experimental study a total number of 40 adult male spraguedawley rats that weighed 200 ± 13 g were randomly divided into five groups: i. styrene (st,n=10), ii. styrene+gadolinium chloride (gdcl3, n=10), iii. control (n=10), iv. gdcl3 (n=5) and v.normal saline (nor.sal, as a solvent of gdcl3, n=5). normal saline, as a sham control group,was otherwise treated identically. rats from the experimental groups were exposed to st in anexposure chamber for 6 days/week, 4 hours/day for up to 3 weeks. at the end of the experiment,rats from all groups were killed by deep anesthesia. their lungs were removed, thenfixed in formalin and weighed. tissue samples were processed routinely and sections stainedby the hematoxylin and eosin (h&e) and periodic acid schiff (pas) methods. we measuredthe thicknesses of the respiratory epithelia and interalveolar septa. obtained data were analyzedby anova, the tukey test and the paired t test.results: shedding of apical cytoplasm in the bronchiole was a prominent feature of thest group. pas staining revealed histochemical changes in goblet cells in the epitheliumof the st group. while there were no significant changes in lung weights and respiratoryepithelial thicknesses between all studied groups, statistical analysis showed a significantalteration in the thickness of interalveolar septa in the st and st+gdcl3 group comparedto the control groups (p < 0.001).conclusion: styrene induced structural and histochemical changes in bronchiole,interalveolar septa and alveolar organization in the rats’ lungs. gadolinium appearedto partially reduce the toxic effects of styrene on the lungs.