Protective effect of Cissus quadrangularis on neutrophil mediated tissue injury induced by aspirin in rats

Cissus quadrangularis (family: Vitaceae) is well known for the treatment of gastric disorders in traditional medicine, owing to its rich source of carotenoids, triterpenoids and ascorbic acid, and has received considerable attention regarding its role in human nutrition. In the search of new potential antiulcer agents, the present study evaluated the ethanol extract of Cissus quadrangularis (CQE) against the gastric toxicity induced by aspirin in rats. The optimum protective dose of 500 mg/kg of extract was selected by the pretreatment of gastric ulcers with different doses of CQE (250, 500 and 750 mg/kg) for 7 days which showed ulcer protection by 40, 71.2 and 72.6%, respectively, as compared to ranitidine (RTD) (30 mg/kg) by 71.9% in the aspirin model. In addition, results have shown that administration of aspirin increases lipid peroxidation status, xanthine oxidase (XO), myeloperoxidase and decrease in selenium-glutathione peroxidase activities in the gastric mucosa, resulting in mucosal damage at both cellular and subcellular level. Pretreatment with CQE ameliorated the observed effect significantly in the gastric mucosa of ulcerated rats. These findings suggest that the gastroprotective activity of CQE could be mediated possibly through its antioxidant effect as well as by the attenuation of the oxidative mechanism and neutrophil infiltration. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.