The effect of acetylsalicylic acid and meloxicamon hematological parameters in rats

Abstract

In this work there was investigated the effect of two nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin (nonselective cyclooxygenase inhibitor - COX1 i COX2) and meloxicam (selective cyclooxygenase inhibitor - COX2) on certain hematological parameters in rats. The objective of the work was to determine whether (and to which extent), these drugs, after multiple peroral application, influence erythrocyte number, concentration of hemoglobin, hematological indices (mean corpuscular value - MCV; mean concentration of hemoglobin in erythrocytes - MCH; mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration - MCHC), hematocrit, number of platelets, leukocytes, neutrophilic leukocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes. The experiment was conducted in in vivo conditions on 70 clinically healthy Wistar strain male rats, 10 to 12 weeks of age and body weight 250 to 300 g. The rats were divided into seven groups and they were daily perorally (by probe) given aspirin (ASCOPIR) at doses of 30, 40 and 80 mg/kg b.m. (I, II and III groups), or meloxicam (METACAM) at doses of 100, 125 and 250 μg/kg b.m. (IV, V and VI groups), for seven days. The seventh group was a control one and they were given only saline. The obtained results showed that: acetylsalicylic acid in maximum dose tested (80 mg/kg b.m.) statistically significantly reduced the number of platelets (p<0,05), the number of leukocytes (p<0,05), the number of lymphocytes (p<0,05) and the number of monocytes (p<0,05), while on the other side, meloxicam in maximum dose tested (250 μg/kg), statistically significantly reduced the mean corpuscular value (MCV), and increased the number of platelets (p<0,05), relative to the control value.

Keywords

• nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• acetylsalicylic acid
• meloxicam
• biochemical and hematological parameters
• rats