the effect of urtica dioica on experimental multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (ms) is a destructive chronic neurological disease that results of destruction of myelin in the cns. the study aimed to evaluate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of urtica dioica on oxidative stress, heat shock proteins and brain histopathology in experimental ms. 60 male c57bl/6 mice were divided into six groups of ten, including positive control, negative control, and treatment with urtica dioica extract at dose of 50, 100, 200 and 400mg/kg for 21 days (three times a week). the disease was induced by a diet containing 0.2g cuprizone in 100g of food for six weeks. a section of brains was assessed with luxal fast blue staining and the other part was homogenized for evaluation with hsp kits 60, 70, total antioxidant capacity and malondialdehyde. in corpus callosum sections, the highest amount of myelin was observed in the negative controls, while the destruction and reduction of myelin was seen in the positive controls. the extract in therapeutic groups except at a dose of 50mg/kg could reduce myelin degradation to some extent and lead to remyelination. although hsp60 decreased in the treatment groups, there was no significant difference between positive and negative controls. in addition, the amount of hsp70 significantly reduced compared to the positive controls. decreased tac and increased mda in positive control mice indicated oxidative stress. the extract led to increase and decrease of tac and mda in the treatment groups, respectively. it seems that the antioxidant effects of urtica dioica extract could decrease cuprizone-induced oxidative stress and be effective in improving demyelination.