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

Background: radiation-induced lung injury is a common complication afteresophageal, breast, etc. cancer radiotherapy. we aimed to evaluate theradioprotective effect of arbutin on acute radiation-induced lung damage inmale rats. materials and methods: fifty-two male wistar rats were dividedinto 4 groups: (i) control group (n = 10), (ii) vehicle group (n = 10, receiveddistilled water intraperitoneally (ip)), (iii) x-irradiation only (n=16, chest wasirradiated to a single dose of 20 gy x-rays) and (iv) arbutin + x-irradiation(n=16, 75 mg/kg of arbutin 2 hours before irradiation (ip), and then theirchest was exposed to 20 gy x-rays). for histopathological investigation, 8animals of each group were sacrificed 8 weeks after treatment and the rest ofthem were sacrificed 3 months after treatment. results: the histopathologicalanalysis in 8 weeks after x-irradiation showed that there was a significantincrease in inflammatory in x-irradiation only group compared to controlgroup. the administration of arbutin 2 hours prior to x-irradiation significantlyreduced inflammation and inflammatory factors such as macrophages, mastcell and neutrophil in arbutin + x-irradiation group compared to x-irradiationonly group (p<0.05). the histopathologic investigation performed 3 monthsafter lung irradiation indicated a significant reduction in fibrosis formation inarbutin + x-irradiation group compared to irradiation only group (p<0.05).localized chest x-irradiation with 20 gy caused histopathologic damage to thelungs for short -term. conclusion: arbutin has a great potential in reducingthe histopathologic damage to lung tissue after thoracic irradiation