The neurotoxic effect of intrathecal diclofenac sodium in rats [Ratlarda i̇ntratekal diklofenak sodyumun nörotoksik etkisi]

We aimed to investigate the possible neurotoxic effects of single and repeated doses of diclofenac sodium administered to rats. the current study included 24 male sprague-dawley rats weighing 250-300 g. at the end of a 4-h fasting period,the rats were randomly split into 3 groups following the establishment of anesthesia with intraperitoneal delivery of 100 mg kg -1 of ketamine hydrochloride and 10 mg kg -1 of xylazine chloride. group 2 (n=8) received 10 μl (200 μg) of intrathecal diclofenac sodium on 7th day as a single dose,whereas the rats in group 1 (n=8) and group 3 (n=8) were received 10 μl of intrathecal 0.9% saline and 10 μl (200 μg) of intrathecal diclofenac sodium via a 0.40 × 50 mm needle per day for 7 days. during the course of the study the animals were examined with regard to clinical toxicity. after fixating the tissues by injection of 10% formaldehyde,spinal cords were explored and evaluated histopathologically with electron microscopy. statistical analysis was performed with the kruskal wallis test. p values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. while electron microscopic examination showed no changes in the control group,diclofenac sodium exhibited neurotoxic effects that were more marked following the 7-days treatment. diclofenac sodium was neurodegenerative,depending on the dose,and cellular organelles were observed to have compression associated with extracellular edema. neurodegeneration was thought to be occured with a significant reduction in cellular activity.