gallic acid protects against methotrexate-induced intestinal mucositis; oxidative stress, histopathology and inflammatory status

Background: gastrointestinal (gi) mucositis is one of the serious side effects of methotrexate (mtx) treatment. it is known that oxidative stress plays an important role in drug-induced side effects. objectives: the present study aimed to assess the effect of gallic acid (ga) against mtx-induced intestinal mucositis in male wistar rats. methods: twenty-eight adult male wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 7), including (1) control group; (2) ga group (gallic acid: 30 mg/kg/day, orally); (3) mtx group [20 mg/kg, intra peritoneal (ip)]; and (4) (mtx + ga) group (mtx: 20 mg/kg, ip and gallic acid: 30 mg/kg/day, orally). then amounts of malondialdehyde (mda), nitric oxide (no), glutathione peroxidase (gpx), glutathione (gsh), superoxide dismutase (sod), interleukin 2 (il-2) and interleukin 6 (il-6) were analyzed in serum samples and then the histopathological examinations of the duodenum and jejunum of animals groups. results: the results showed that treatment with ga significantly reduced the mtx-induced elevation of serum mda (p < 0.001), no (p < 0.001), il-2 (p < 0.001) and il-6 (p < 0.001) contents and increased mtx-induced reduction in gsh (p < 0.001) content, gpx (p < 0.001) and sod (p < 0.001) activity. in addition, the histopathological results showed that mtx leads to intestinal tissue damage, and gallic acid can remarkably improve the pathological changes. conclusions: our results indicate that gallic acid can mitigate oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory parameters and also moderately prevent histopathological damage of the small intestine of rats exposed to mtx.